


Sprousehart

by ccshbh



Category: Riverdale - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Sprousehart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-24 17:55:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 36,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13816419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccshbh/pseuds/ccshbh
Summary: This is a series of my little Sprousehart one shots.I don’t know anyone mentioned in these one shots and I have no intention to insult or hurt anyone with my work.





	1. Valentines Day

“Are they serious?!” Cole muttered as they entered the lunch room. Casey next to him chuckled. 

“Why did I know you would say that?? Tell me, how much do you hate Valentines Day??”

“I don’t” Cole answered, while flopping down on a chair.

“I just don’t understand why it has to be so..” he gestured towards the tables. “..over the top. I mean I appreciate the effort, but why does everything have to be so pink and red and cute??”

Casey shrugged. “I don’t know, someone just decided that once and that’s how it is now, I guess??”

Cole rolled his eyes. “The root of all evil. Letting other people decide for you and take it as a given. And another thing is, that I don’t get the concept behind it. Like am I supposed to love my girl more than I did yesterday or will tomorrow?? Because newsflash: I’m not sure that’s possible”

“Speaking of which” Casey said and gestured towards the entrance. Lili had just entered the room with Mads and Vanessa and her eyes went wide as she saw the decorations. She nudged Mads and they both started to giggle as they made their way to the table.

“Isn’t this insanely cute??” she asked, as she dropped down in the chair next to them. 

“Your boyfriend here hates it” Casey said.

“I don’t hate it. God Casey, were you listening to anything I just said??”

“I checked out at: the roots of all evil”  
Cole rolled his eyes again while Lili playfully hit him on the back of his head.

“Come on, Cole. Don’t be a Debbie Downer. It’s Valentines Day”

“You’ve sure come a long way from flipping off Valentines Day presents in a store..”

“Guess who’s fault that is” she said and leaned over to give him a quick peck on the lips.

He couldn’t help it. Her words and the genuine smile forming on her lips as she said them made him melt. God, how did she do that?!

A few hours later

“See you guys tomorrow then” Hart said, as he climbed out of the car. 

“Bye Hart” Lili answered while Cole gave a little wave.

“I can’t wait to get home” Lili mumbled, as the door slammed shut.

“It has been an awfully long day, yeah”  
They drove in silence until Cole “missed” a turn they had to make.

“Uhm babe, you missed a turn. Your place is that way” Lili said.

“Naah.” Cole mumbled.

Lili looked at him questioningly.

“What are you planning Sprouse?!” she giggled and nudge his shoulder.

He sighed. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. 

“I mean, like you said, it’s Valentine’s Day after all and well, we can’t really do anything special given the time and the fact that we have to be up at like 5 a.m. tomorrow, but I thought we could.. I don’t know.. get “Moulin Rouge” and a ton of junk food and celebrate that way?? Does that sound lame??”

From the corner of his eyes he saw a wide smile spread across her face. He loved that about her. The fact that she could get so happy about the little things, about something like her favorite movie and junk food.

“Oh my god no.” she laughed. “That sounds like the best Valentines Day ever.”

1 hour later

As they laid out all the junk food they had brought from the store Cole couldn’t help but grin.

“What is it??” Lili asked.

“I just imagined what KJ would say if he saw that amount of unhealthy food. Or, even worse, Debbie”

Lili giggled. “They would collectively scream at us. For like an hour.”

They both burst out into laugher and for some reason weren’t able to stop until a good five minutes later. This happened a lot since they’d first meet. Just fits of uncontrollable laughter spilling out of them. Cole sometimes wondered if that was what happiness meant. Having someone you could laugh with, until you couldn’t breath anymore, until tears of joy rolled over your cheeks.

But a few minutes later, that thought crossed his mind again. As they lay there, snuggled up, the world locked out, he realized that happiness didn’t just mean to laugh with her. It also meant this, being together and forgetting all the concerns, forgetting the world together. It meant this and so many more things. All the little things, that made up his days, from a good morning kiss, to the conversations on their drives home. It wasn’t the grand gestures and the special dates. 

Happiness was her.


	2. A thief

“You punched a thief once??” Lili asked as Cole flopped down back on the couch after he had checked on the Brownies they’d made.

“Huu??” he said, looking at her confused. He had punched someone stealing stuff from his family once, but he had never told her. And that incident had happened over two years ago. How did she know??

Lili giggled at his confused face and handed him her phone. She had watched a video, seemingly the one of Dylan’s TRL interview. He pressed play and after a few seconds realized that Dylan had retold the whole fucking story about him trying to stop this lowlife from stealing all their shit back when they visited Italy. He rolled his eyes, stopped the video and handed Lili her phone back.

“I might have to kill him” he mumbled, hiding his face in his hands.

“Why??” Lili asked. She seemed infinitely amused.

“Well, firstly, because he clearly just blew my cover for my true self: the FBI agent behind your camera that also knows how to do cool action movie shit. And secondly, because that wasn’t really a thing I thought trough.” 

“He was stealing your shit and you did try to stop him. I don’t see the wrong in it.” she laughed. 

“I just didn’t know you could be so fiercely protective. I mean I know you can get protective, but that is a new level. Rolling of off car hoods, seriously Cole, that’s some Die Hard shit”

“One of my cameras was in that car” Cole said, smirking and shrugging his shoulders involuntaryly. 

“I’m not gonna let someone steal one of my babies without a fight” 

Lili couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the situation. The same Cole, that had just told her that she looked hot with pimple cream on her face and had almost stumbled over himself to get to the kitchen when she uttered the word brownies, had punched someone, while hanging out of a car window going 40 mph. She didn’t know why, but it amused her. A lot.

Altough if she was completely honest that mixture of softness and toughness about him had always fascinated her. Cole could be the sweetest guy on earth, but god help the one that got on his wrong side. Messing with him was just a bad idea. She was pretty sure if somebody really pissed him off, he could be their worst nightmare. And even more so, if people he loved got attacked. 

It was not just this story about the robbery in Italy, she also had seen him defending Dylan with all his might, ready to throw hands if needed. She had seen him, screaming and fuming at a guy, who had been trying to put hands on one of his best friends. It had taken a lot to calm him down that night. 

Nonetheless her favorite Cole was this one, the one she knew only she got to see. The one who was trailing circles with his tumb on her ankles when she rested her feet on his lap, like she did right now. The one that nesteled his face into her hair and stroked her shoulder so gently you could think he feared to break it. The one that smiled at her lazily every morning.

Her Cole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	3. Whistler

“Yeah, but still you didn’t have to laugh.”

“Oh come one, it looked histerical. Didn’t you see how he fell over?? He looked like a freshly cut tree.”

“It was his first time on a snowboard Cole.”

“And I told him not to stand like this or he’d fall. He totally brought it up on himself. Also, he didn’t get hurt. And after all, it’s Hart, he’ll manage.”

Lili rolled her eyes at him, dropping down on the bed of their hotel room almost graceless, except the fact that she wasn’t capable of moving without grace. At least not in Cole’s opinion.

It had started to snow outside and the streets of Whistler where almost empty now. They had managed to get back to the hotel, just before the snow had really picked up and he was trying to get a fire going in the open fireplace.

He smirked. Of course there had to be an open fireplace. Everything about Whistler was awfully chliché, from the fireplaces, to the mountains piks covered in snow one could see from every place in town. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

After weeks of nonstop 15-hour-days, almost constant 6-day-weeks for Lili, the moment Hart had come up with the idea of going to Whistler, they both had almost immediately jumped to it. It was nice to get out of Vancouver for once, to escape the town a little, to be able to breath in the fresh air of the mountains.

But after all, it was an excuse to spend some time alone, just the two of them. Sure, they where here with Hart and Sunny, but nonetheless, this here, snuggling together on the bed of their hotel room while the fire was cracking and the flames where turning the wood black slowly, as stereotypical as it was, felt like heaven.

It was a kind of quietness Cole had searched for all his life, a kind of quietness only Lili could provide. His life had always been a steady stream of noise, except for those times he managed to escape into the woods, or go outside with his camera, exploring places, capturing them, praying to god nobody would recognize him.

But then she walked into the room the day they had first met, and everything went quiet. Suddenly all the noise had been drowned out and time seemed to go slower. It had intrigued him from the start and he’d been, although he didn’t realize until much later, lost completely. It had been Lili or nobody else from this day forward.

As she rested her head on his chest, he almost couldn’t believe that all this had happend just 2 years ago, when it felt like he had known her forever. His fingers ran through her hair and it didn’t take long for her eyelids to grow heavy. He could see her fighting it, urging herself to stay awake just a little longer, to enjoy the moment just a bit more. But ultimately, she gave in, drifting off and her slow breaths soon filled the room and where the only thing audiable together with the low cracking of the dying flames in the fire place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	4. Lazy Sunday

“This was probably the best idea ever” Cole mumbled lazily, while he scrolled through his phone.

  
Lili lifted her head from his chest for a second. Ever since the Grammys had started, she had been glued to the screen, commenting on outfits, songs and Make Up. Cole enjoyed watching her this relaxed, giggling about the stupid jokes he made now and then. Their decision to stay in and spend their Sunday snuggled up on the couch had been a good one. Especially thinking about what the week ahead had in store for them, regarding work and 15-hour-shoots.

  
“What do you mean?” she asked.

  
“This” he mumbled. “Staying in all day”

  
She nestled her head into his chest and he felt her lips turn up into a smile.

  
“So you are not bored out of your mind, having to watch a stupid award show with me?”

  
He couldn’t help but smirk. It was true, he wasn’t really into all these fancy award shows. Hell, he wasn’t into any award show really. Maybe he had been to too much of them. Maybe it was just the shallowness and the fake glamour. He didn’t know and quite frankly he didn’t care that much.

  
But this was Lili, snuggling and tons of junkfood. He would sit through a million award shows if it meant that he got some time alone with her.

  
Their phones had been buzzing all day, mostly people suggesting plans. They had ignored all of them. The farest they had walked had been to the fridge and back. And it still felt like the most relaxing thing he had done in weeks.

  
He put his phone down, grinning to himself. If you’d ask him two years ago, he never thought that he would enjoy a rainy Sunday so much. Rainy sundays had been his nightmare. Not that there had been much in California, but nonetheless, when they happend, they had bored him to death. He had always urged to go outside, discover things, explore the world around him, later capturing it with his camera.

  
Now rainy Sundays had become the perfect excuse to not move an inch. And he loved every part of it.

  
A while later, he got up to get something out of the fridge and when he came back to the living room a commercial break had just started. Lili had sat up, her phone in hand and was (from what he could see) trying out various Instagram filters.

  
He rose his eyebrow, but before he could utter a word, she lifted her hand.

  
“I know I know. They are shit and not worth a picture. But they are fun, look.”

  
She picked one, snapped a photo of herself and showed it to him. He knew that filter, it was the one that looked like one ray of sunshine fell over the persons face. He had to admit that it suited her. It brought out her eyes, made them even more piercing, even more green, maybe even more beautiful, but he wasn’t sure that was possible.

  
“Nah” he said. “We can get a better one”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	5. Hike

Lili’s phone buzzed. She didn’t even have to look at it to know it was him. Austyn had left literally 10 minutes ago, and here he was probably suggesting another adventure. A glance at his message proved her right.

“Are you in for a hike? I heard Lynn Valley is beautiful this time of the year”

She smiled to herself, thinking about how crazy it was that he was able to do that. Making her smile with only one text. They hadn’t seen each other for about a week, (except for one quick hug on set) and she just now realized how much she had missed him. Being with Austyn had been a pretty good distraction, especially as they tried to keep it low after all the fuss the pictures from Hawaii and the airport had stired up.

“We should have expected that though” she thought.

There had always been a buzz around them, people had been picking on every little detail. The way Cole looked at her and viceversa. His hand on her shoulder (although he really had a thing for that). The fact that he had let her put make-up on his face although he hated it.

Everything had been a topic of speculation and nonetheless the fuzz around the recent happenings had caught them by surprise.

“Don’t you have to go to New York?” she responded, admittedly to tease him a little.

“I’ll catch the red eye. Plenty of time to go hike and have dinner.”

“Food!” she added a heart emoji after that. “Now I’m intrigued Mr. Sprouse”

She could basically see him rolling his eyes, while receiving the text.

An hour later he was at her door step, wide grin on his face, his hair just a little messy, dressed in a brown jacket, red scarf, jeans and hiking boots. She couldn’t believe how he managed to look like he just fell out of bed and insanely attractive at the same time.

Before she could say anything, she felt his arm wrapping around her waist and he bent down for a kiss.

He caught her by surprise at first, but then she leaned into the kiss herself, smiling at the taste of his lips after what seemed like an eternity.

“God, I’ve missed you” he mumbled and leaned his forehead against hers.

“I’ve missed you too” she mumbled, caressing his cheek. They stayed like that for a minute, then she freed herself from his embrace and said:

“So where do you wanna go actually??”

“Lynn Valley. It’s not that far, but I’ve seen pictures and it looks increidible. I just need at least one hour of clean air before I go to New York.”

A 31-minutes-drive later they arrived and it was as breathtaking as Cole had described it. Despite the season it was a mix of colors, of various shades of green and blue. Lili could see how Cole’s eyes wandered around, scouting the area for the perfect shot. It was something he didn’t even do on purpose, it had just become a part of him, it was as natural as breathing.

A while later they reached the top of a hill and found a little bench, just behind a row of trees.

Cole silently cursed himself for being out of breath and swore the millionth time that he’d quit smoking.

The little bench however was the perfect hiding spot. It had an increidible view on Lynn Valley, but was also hidden from sight until almost the end of the turn the path made up here.

They dropped down and started to catch up on their respective weeks and what would be coming up the one that followed.

“So you are going to play password on Fallon?!” Lili said, trying to surpress a giggle while she leaned into him.

The mental image of Cole trying to explain something with one word was just to much.

Cole grinned: “It will either be the most awkward or the funniest thing I’ve ever done.”

She didn’t know how long they stayed there. But she completely forgot the time and after a while, not even the cold bothered her anymore. They were wrapped up in their own world, and meanwhile locked out everything else. And as for her, they could have stayed like that forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	6. Lucky

Cole stired awake when his phone rang. It was 8 a.m. But he didn’t have to be on set until noon due to the incident with KJ. Not that he minded sleeping a little longer. Lili had left an hour ago, waking him carefully for a “good-bye” or rather “see-you-tonight” kiss and to remind him that he needed to show Austyn - her best friend from Ohio who visited them for the week - how to get to some of the most famous spots in Vancouver. She wanted to get in a little sight seeing while Lili was on set. He sat up, rubbed his eyes and yawned. Who the fuck was calling him so early??

As he grabbed for the phone and took a look he groaned. Dylan. Of course. Who else?? Still half asleep he took the call.

“Huh??” the sound he made was bearly audible.

“Morning fucker. Why didn’t you tell me you where going to be in town this weekend??”

It confused Cole for a minute. Then he remebered. Fallon. This weekend. God, he hated to be asked questions right after waking up.

“I only got the news yesterday. Also, thanks for waking me up.”

“You’re welcome.”

“That was not meant to sound thankful.”

He heard Dylan laugh on the other end. “Anyway, my pleasure. Still, we need to do something, anything.”

“Dyl.. seriously” Cole grumbled. “Can we figure that out when I get there?? Its to early here.”

“Its 8 a.m.”

“To early, like I said.” Dylan laughed again.

“I bet your girlfriend is already up and working.”

“Of course she is. She is being awesome as usual”

“How did you get so lucky again??”

“I don’t know man, I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	7. Art of the Asylum

Someone slammed a door. Cole sat up straight in bed, releasing a river of mumbled slurs after realizing how he had woken up. BAM!! Another door. For god’s sake was nobody in this household able to close a door like a normal human person?

After a week with not remotely enough sleep (Partly to the Golden Globes events last night, partly to the fact that he’d basically lived by the motto: “Let’s just use all the time we’ve got. Including 1 a.m.” during his and Lili’s vacation in Hawaii.) all he needed was just a little consideration.

He grabbed his phone to check the time. 7 a.m. What did they do up anyway?! Bam, another door.

“For fuck’s sake dad” he yelled. “There are handles on those things for a reason”

He didn’t mean to sound so rude. But he was tired, exhausted and a little annoyed at the fact that he wasn’t still in Hawaii, his arms wrapped around Lili.

“You might be 25, but still: language son, language. And I’m sorry” his dad answered.

”Yeah, I’m sorry too.” With that he dropped back to the pillows, checking the time on his phone again, only to realize that he had a message from Lili. How was she up already? He opened the message and had to hold back to not laugh out loud.

no _I swear to god, people going for a jogg at 7 a.m. and slamming doors while doing so are the worst. I love Taylor, but can she please not._

He texted back: _Guess who just woke up because of the exact same bullshit. We need to get back to Vancouver, I need your tiptoeing in the morning. So much more considerate_.

His mind went back to the night before. It had been rather unnerving. After the pictures of them at the beach had been published, they had decided to keep a low profil, trying not to get to much attention on them. Thank god, there where more important and more famous people at those events which made it a little easier for them. Cole had already survived the hurdling that had been giving interviews after their Hawaii trip and was about to sit down at their table when she walked in.

His jaw almost dropped. Everything, from her hair to her toes looked absolutely stunning. He couldn’t help himself but stare.

Mads, who had sat down with her boyfriend Travis noticed and also turned her head the direction he was looking in.

“Wow. She looks gorgeous.”

“Gorgeous” was an understatement. She looked like a greek godness. She was radiant.

When Lili reached the table she gave Mads and Travis a hug, before continuing into his direction. She smiled at him, as they hugged.

“You are on a quest to kill me, aren’t you?” he mumbled. “You look absolutely breathtaking Lils.”

She blushed a little while sitting down between him and Mads.

“You don’t look to bad, yourself” she said, her gaze lasting on his suit for a minute.

“What’s up with the turtle neck though?!”

”Oh, as if you didn’t know.” he said and smirked at her.

It took a whole lot of him not to touch her during the gala.

“Keep it low Cole, keep it low” he repeated to himself time and time again.

Easier said than done. Especially when he noticed that her social batteries started dying. The expression on her face changed and he just knew, that she was longing to go home and have a few moments to herself.

“Are you okay?” he mumbled, leaning over to her, just far enough so she could hear him.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

The gala was over soon after and they all made their way back outside. He knew that she would be heading home instead of going to the Vanity Fair party, so he couldn’t help it. As soon as he saw the chance, he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him to the side, behind a pillar, praying no one would notice it during all the fuss of people leaving.

“Cole what -“ she started, but before she could end the sentence he kissed her. A short kiss, almost an innocent one, just enough to taste her lips. Maybe he was being ridiculous, maybe he was being selfish, but quite frankly he didn’t care. In her surprise Lili reacted naturally and settled her hands on his chest, just for a second.

When they broke apart she grinned: “You are weak Sprouse, you know that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	8. Hawaii

“I’m not ready to leave” Cole groaned, his face burried into his pillow.

It was a sincere and legit complaint. He was as far from ready to leave this paradise as anyone could be. Just the thought of boarding a plane this afternoon made him naseous. Maybe that was also the reason for why he had woken up so early. During the last week they had only gotten up this early on two occasions. To go watch the sunrise and when they went on a trip to the other side of the island, to see some of it’s most precious creatures. The birds they’d spotted had been the funniest thing. He smirked remembering all of it, while he felt Lili’s hand trailing down the bare skin of his back.

“Neither am I.” she mumbled and he turned his face to look at her. She looked drop dead gorgeous, still half asleep, her hair just a little messy. It made him wanna kiss her senseless.

Cole sighed, pulled the cover over his head and - considering their height difference - over her’s too.

“I’m not ready for all the shit” he repeated, reaching for her waist to pull her closer.

“Not for L.A. Not for the Golden Globe events. Not for five layers of cloth back in Vancouver.”

Lili nestled her face into his chest, taking a deep breath. He stroked her back, once again wondering how he’d gone 24 years without all this, without her.

“That’s not fair, Sprouse. I can’t be the voice of reason here when you are holding me so close.” He could barley hear her, with her face still buried in his chest.

“Don’t be. I’m still in for our masterplan” he responded, making her giggle.

“We can’t fly to New York, chop Dylan’s hair off and dye it black while he is sleeping. Let alone kidnapp him and bring him to Vancouver. And furthermore, you are the only one with a twin here. What am I supposed to do?!”

“Can’t we get Tess to play Betty?”

“She is 14, Cole”

“So what, you started out with 14. And she is closer to the whole teenage expierence than we are. Let’s kidnapp them both, drop them off in Vancouver and we’ll be back here in no time”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him. Goddamit, even that was adorable. He just couldn’t help it, he bend down a little to kiss her. It was intended to be a sweet, short kiss, but once his lips touched hers there was no going back.

Those lips were like his own personal drug. It was like that Bruno Mars song:

“I’d kiss them all day if she let me”.

When he detached himself from her a few minutes later, it took a considerable amount of self control. As much as he hated it, they had no time for that. Not today. There were suitcases to be packed and flights to be catched.

Later after they had everything ready to leave, Cole stepped out on the balcony to snap one last picture. The view they had was amazing and it looked incredible on camera. He heard Lili step out after him. She leaned against the handrail, her arms crossed. He took another picture of her. He had lost count on how many it had been during this week. Some of them he might share on Instagram, but most were only meant for the both of them. They contained precious memories and he was not keen on ever sharing them with anyone but her.

Cole put his camera down on a windowsill carefully, hugged her from behind and put his chin on her shoulder. He didn’t give fuck anymore about who might see them.

“Let them fucking know” he thought.

They stood there for a while, looking out at the ocean, which seemed endless and had the color of sapphires. None of them said a word, because quiet frankly there was no need to talk. It had been a long time since silence had felt so good, so easy for both of them.

All the little moments they had during the week flashed trough Cole’s mind and all of them included her. Lili nervous and excited, not able to sit still on the plane. Lili focused on her phone while trying to find the best place to have lunch. Lili wrapped up in the white, clean sheets of their bed, sleeping soundly. Lili smiling at him after their New Year’s Eve kiss. Lili sitting cross legged on a rock at the beach while watching the sunset. He could have gone on for hours.

But she turned around and shook him out of his day dreaming. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she got on her tiptoes to kiss him softly.

“Come on.” she mumbled. “Back to the real world now”

As they grabbed their suitcases Cole took in a deep breath. Yeah, indeed it was “back to the real world”. And although the thought still made him naseous, he couldn’t help but smile as an other one crossed his mind.  
As long as it would be with her, he’d gladly take on everything that would be coming their way in the real world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	9. Weekend

_Friday_

“Come on Cole, tell me, where are we going?” Lili pleaded.

Cole smirked: “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.”

Lili sighed and leaned back into the passengers seat. Of course he wouldn’t tell her. He had woken her up at 8:30 that morning, although it was their day off. She had thought that they’d just stay in, maybe have lunch or dinner out somewhere in Vancouver. But not with Cole. Three free days in a row meant there was a chance for an adventure. And he wouldn’t let that chance slip.

“You are spoiling me, Sprouse” Lili said, which brought a small smile to his face.

“You’ve been working so much lately. You deserve a little time off. And as we had to work on Valentine’s Day..” he answered and shrugged.

“I told you, it’s not that big of a deal. I mean, it’s a commercial holiday after all. And I’m only into it for the candy anway.”

She said the last sentence, while ripping the paper off a mars bar, they had picked up at a gas station half way. She took a dramatic bite and Cole couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Infact he laughed so much that he almost had to pull over and stop the car.

“God Lils, I’m trying to get us to our destination in one piece. Can you please stop being so adorable?”

He took a deep breath to clam himself down, but as soon as he saw her take another dramatic bite from the cornor of his eyes, the laughter spilled out of him again. So much that he almost missed the highway exit they were supposed to take.

“Tofino” Lili read.

The name sounded vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn’t remeber where she had first read it. They couldn’t be to far from Vancouver though, they had barely driven two hours.

Due to their frequent adventures and getaways into the wilds she’d become pretty familiar with Vancouver and it’s sourroundings, but she had never been here before. Nonetheless the name sounded so familiar. She wrecked her brain, but nothing stood up.

Then they took another turn, the Pacific ocean came in sight and it hit her like a ton of bricks. Had he really.. no. She had mentioned that like half a year ago, when some crew member had told them about what a lovely time she had spent here during the show’s summer hiatus. The sign they where passing now, proofed her right.. “Wickaninnish Inn”.

She had googled it, after the crew member had mentioned it and fallen in love with it immediately. It was a simple light blue house, framed by an acient rain forest and the Pacific Ocean. She had mentioned it to Cole the day after as an option for one of their future getaways, but only briefly. So briefly, that she herself had forgotten about it. But of course he remembered. He always did.

“I can’t believe you remembered that.” It was barely more than a whisper.

Cole had stopped the car by now and smiled shyly.

“It’s so far away from everything, it’s quiet and there is almost nobody here this time of the year. I thought it would make for a great trip. You know just the two of us, away from all the noise, even if it’s just for two nights. And the ph..”

He couldn’t finish the sentence, because Lili had almost thrown herself across the gearshift to kiss him. It surprised him and he had to grip the steering wheel to not bump into the door behind him.

“Thank you” she mumbled against his lips, a smile forming on hers, that made his heart skip a beat.

They got out of the car and grabbed the bags Cole had secretly packed the night before (he was still not sure if he had gotten everything) from the trunk. They entered the Inn, got their key from the reception and took the elevator upstairs. They entered their room and Lili was gushing about the Inn’s spa offers, when something caught her eye and she stopped in her tracks.

“Okay, now you’re just showing off.”

A buquet of at least 6 dozen roses had been positioned on one of the tables in the room. Red roses. And she was quiet sure that the hotel didn’t just put red roses into every single one of their rooms.

Cole came up behind her, slung his arms around her, propped his chin up on her shoulder and said:

“You don’t like them?”

“I love them.” she answered and turned to kiss him.

“But I’m not really sure how I deserve all this??”

“You deserve the world Lils”

_Saturday_

Even the weather played along. It sometimes scared Cole how perfectly things seemed to work out when it was just the two of them. He had been checking the weather for Torfino obsessivly during the previous week and it seemed to have been raining 90 % of the time.

But now it was Saturday afternoon and the sun had come out. Lili had spent the morning in the hotel’s spa, getting treatments he couldn’t even pronounce, but when she came back, she had seemed more relaxed than at any point through the last few months. When the sun came out after lunch, they had headed to explore the surroundings of the hotel.

Because what kind of adventure was this, if they wouldn’t get at least one epic shot to show off with after?

“What do you think about up there??” Lili said and pointed at a rock that was sticking out of the water like at tower.

It seemed easy to climb, but it also seemed awfully easy to slip and fall down into the water.

“Looks dangerous” Cole mumbled, which provoked a giggle from Lili.

“Since when do you care?” she said. “Do I have to remind you, that you climed the last brenches of a huge ass tree in Hawaii, just to get a picture of some birds.”

Cole sighed. She was right. He had climbed that tree, he had gotten a dozen tickets for trespassing, he had climbed into buildings and driven his Jeep into area’s that were less than safe to get a good picture, but it was different with her. He didn’t mind his own recklessness.

Regarding her however, he had this (sometimes overwhelming) urge to protect her from anything and anyone that could possibly cause her harm. He knew it was ridicoulus. She could very well take care of herself. But nonethless it was there.

“I think it would look amazing yeah..” he mumbled.

They approached the rock and as Lili started climbing it, Cole could only stand there and watch her in awe.

“What the fuck? Where did you learn to climb like that?” He was truly astonished.

“I’ve climed about every tree in our neighboorhood when I was a kid, have I never told you??”

She had to almost yell now, because the waves were hitting the rock with an almost fascinating force.

No. No she hadn’t. But goddamn, he loved this. Because that was quintessentially his life with Lili. Everyday he discovered something new about her. Everyday was a little adventure in itself.

_Sunday_

Their last day started with heavy rain drops streaming down their window. Or in other words: It was a stay-in-bed-and-snuggle-in-until-noon-day. They had ordered breakfast and Lili was now happily sipping the last of her hot choclate.

“You know” she said, tugging at the edge of the douvet.

“You’ve really outdone yourself with this one.”

“You think?” Cole grinned and pulled her closer again.

He breathed a kiss onto her hair.

“This Inn, the roses, the time it must have taken you to plan this.. It might come in a close second after Hawaii, but its definitely up there in the top 3 of our trips. And I really needed this. You know, getting away from the noise, relaxing a little. I didn’t realize it, but I did need it. So.. thank you for that I guess. Thank you for knowing me better than I know myself sometimes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	10. Insecurities

Lili was standing infront of a full-length mirror, looking at the outfit that had been picked out for her Cosmo covershoot with Cami. It was a cute outfit, the colors definetly suited her and no one could claim that the stylist didn’t know what she was doing. Nonetheless, the longer she looked at herself the louder the little voice in the back of her head became. She knew it was ridiculous. Her body wasn’t perfect but healthy, it had curves where they should be and she looked “pretty fucking gorgeous” on camera. (Cole’s words not her’s).

But no matter what she did, no matter how often she was told she looked amazing, the insecurity was always there. Seething under the surface, showing its ugly face every once in a while. Admittedly, much less now then when she was younger. But nevertheless it creeped into her head now and then, silently at first, then steadily growing louder and finally, if she couldn’t find the energy to fight it down, screaming at her, somehow overshadowing all her thoughts. She sighed, turned around and flopped down on a chair.

“There is no use in overthinking this.” she told herself. “You’ll just drive yourself crazy.”

She looked over at Cami, who was already posing for the photographer, seemingly with all the confidence in the world. Sometimes she wished she had that confidence, to just go out there and rock this shoot, enjoying this huge opportunity she was given here, without overthinking it. But that was just not how her mind worked. One day maybe. But there was still a long way go. She knew that, but at least now she was prepared for the fight.

Her buzzing phone shook her from her thoughts. As she looked at the screen she smiled a smile she didn’t even realize was stealing itself onto her face. It was his picture, one she had taken of him in Hawaii. He was standing at the beach, a careless, almost lazy smile on his face, his shirt half open, the sun slowly setting behind him. It was the cheesiest thing, but she loved it.

She took the call.

“Hey babe”

“Hey.” his voice sounded hoarse.

“Still cultivating that cold I see.” she said. He’d been sick all week, but Cole being Cole he’d played it down and now he was paying for it.

“Don’t even get me started. I hope I’m not interrupting something.”

“No, we already did the pictures of us together and now I’m waiting until it’s my turn. What are you up too?”

“Not much.” he mumbled. “Being lazy. Missing you.”

Again, she couldn’t help but smile. It never got old.

“I miss you too.” she responded.

“You need to do me a favor, you gotta give me a heads up on those photos you guys are taking, I gotta mentally prepare for how awesome you are going to look.”

“Well… yeah…” she couldn’t fight down the hesitation and insecurity in her voice.

Of course Cole picked up on it immediately.

“What is it Lils?” The tone of his voice made her heart skip a beat. He always sounded so sincere when it came to talking about her problems and insecurities and it produced a warm feeling in her belly that there was someone out there, who cared this much about her (apart from her family of course).

Never had he seemed annoyed or had played down her worries, on the contrary, he’d gone out of his way to calm her, to make her feel better, to be there.

“It’s nothing. It’s actually quite ridiculous”

“It’s not ridiculous if it makes you feel uncomfortable.”

She took a deep breath. He was right, she knew that. And after all, this was Cole. If she couldn’t tell him, who could she tell?

“Its… everything.” she all but whispered.

“The fact that this is a freaking Cosmo cover. You know how huge that is? It just feels so unreal and like something that I’d never dreamed would happen to me. To be completely honest, it scares the shit out of me. And then there is this outfit I’m wearing..” she struggled to find the right words.

“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.

“Well, it’s very uhm.. revealing.”

“I fail to see the problem with that.”

“Cole…” she huffed.

“Yeah, that was stupid. I’m sorry. But seriously Lils. I mean, maybe I’m a little biased when it comes to that, as I’m the guy that gets overwhelmed by the way you flip your hair, but… have you looked at yourself? You are going to slay. You would if they’d put you in a potato sack. And as for how big this is… I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than you do. You’ve been fighting for this all your life, you’ve been working day and night to reach the position you are in right now. And now that it’s paying off you should be enjoying every minute of it. I know it isn’t easy, I know there is this little voice in the back of your head that tells you otherwise and that it’s pretty hard to ignore, but god dammit you deserve the world Lils. And now do said world a favor, go out there and rock that shoot. Also, I kind of wanna show off that the gorgeous blonde everyone will be swooning about as soon as the cover comes out is my girl.”

The last sentence made her giggle. The rest of his words boosted her confidence and silenced the nagging little voice in her head. Just like that.

She didn’t know how he did that, how he always found the words she needed to hear, she only knew that she loved it.

For a moment she didn’t speak, trying to find the right words herself.

In the end she just settled for three and hoped that they would carry all her gratitude.

“Thank you Cole.”

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	11. Cold

“WHY. THE. FUCK. HAS. IT. TO. BE. SO. COLD?” Lili exclaimed as she slammed the door shut behind them.

Cole just smirked. She was right, a wave of cold had taken over Vancouver during the last few days and filming had become increasingly diffcult. He didn’t mind it as much as she did, because New York’s freezing winters had hardened him against the cold. Well, not so much hardend him against it, as made him realize that complaining about it wouldn’t make the temperature rise. Nevertheless he was thankful for every scene Jughead was dressed in one of his Sherpa jackets instead of the thin leather of Serpent one.

“It’s still winter babe. You know, that tends to be very cold” he teased and Lili rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be a smart ass, I saw you shaking when we filmed the scene with the Serpents today. You’re as happy as I’m to finally get back into the warm, admit it.”

“I never said I’m not. The thought of getting back here and snuggling up with you is the only thing that kept me warm all day.” he winked at her and she rolled her eyes so hard that he feared they would get stuck.

“Feeling sassy tonight, aren’t we?” she intended to sound ironic, but couldn’t help the grin that appeared on her face.

“Nah.” Cole had to hold back not to laugh out loud as he opened the door to the kitchen. “I just like to annoy you. I figured you’d know by now.”

“Well, and I like to tell you to shut up.” Lili shoot back, while stretching to get two of the cups off the shelf.

She was stretching like that on purpose, he knew that. The shelf wasn’t that high up after all. It made a smug smile appear on his face.

He approached her and came to a stop just a few inches behind her.

“Make me” he mumbled.

She didn’t have to be told twice.

_The next morning_

Cole woke up to the wind hauling outside the apartment. He sat up slowly, rubbed his eyes and stretched. Carefully, not to wake Lili he got up and drew the curtains back a little to look outside. Vancouver was covered with a thick layer of snow and it seemed like it wouldn’t stop for a while.

He grinned.

Looked like it was to be going a “Netflix-kind-of-weekend”.

He grabbed one of his sweaters, and sneaked out of the bed room, closing the door behind him softely. He was a horrible cook, but he could manage some eggs and toast for breakfast.

From the kitchen windows he saw that the snow storm was blowing even heavier than he thought. He searched for his camera, because the image of Vancouver’s snowy rooftops was just begging to be taken.

It was definetly a couch, blankets and movies kind of day.

While he opened the fridge his phone started buzzing. He snatched it from the kitchen counter where he had left it last night and took a look. It was Dylan.

He accepted the FaceTime call.

“Morning” he greeted his twin brother and tried not to laugh at the look of him.

Dylan looked utterly done with the world, his hair tied up messily, his gaze exhausted.

“I see the martial arts training is going well”

“Shut up.” Dylan mumbled. “It’s fucking hell, I swear. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to move tomorrow.”

“Come on, it will take you about a week and you will catch up to it like you do with everything. You’re going to come back looking even more like Thor than you already do.” Cole answered over his shoulder while shuffling around the kitchen.

“I hope so. What are you guys up to?”

Cole smiled involuntary at the plural Dylan was using. He didn’t know why, but it made him feel giddy when people referred to Lili and him in plural. It provoked a certain sense of pride in him.

He shrugged at his brother: “Well first of all I’m going to try to get some breakfast ready without burning the apartment down and theb we’ll see I guess. Snow is falling pretty heavy here, I think we’re not going to leave this place today.”

They chatted along to Cole’s attempt of breakfast, which turned out pretty well at least for his standards. He managed to not burn anything and considered that a success on its own.

When he was trying to put the exact same amount of eggs on their two plates Lili entered the kitchen, stretching, her hair tied up in a messy bun, dressed up in sweats and cementing Cole’s desicion to stay in and do absolutely nothing today.

She kissed him good morning and than gave a lazy smile and wave to Dylan.

“Hey Dyl, what’s Beijing like??”

_Later that day_

The snow hadn’t stopped falling outside and the day was slowly coming to an end.

But neither Lili or Cole minded. It had been the perfect lazy day. They had alternated between binge watching anything that Nextflix had to offer, stuffing themselves with the unhealthiest food they could find and scrolling through Instagram.

“You know what??” Lili mumbled, while applying one of her face masks.

Cole looked up from the book he had been reading for the last hour.

“What??”

“Okay, I know that this is going to sound super typical and chliché, but I love that we can do this. Like that no matter if we are speeding along a snowy road at a murdours pace…”

“You’ll never let me hear the end of that, will you??”

She grinned mischievously. “No. And you brought that up on yourself Mr. Okay, now I’ve lost my point..”

“You said you loved that we can do that..”

“Oh yeah right. I mean, that no matter if it’s something exciting or if we are just being pretty lazy it always somehow turns out to be an awesome day.”

Cole smiled.

“Your right that sounds awfully typical and chliché. But if I’m being completely honest..” his voice turned into a mumble when he leaned over to kiss her, not minding the paste on her face. “I don’t mind that. Because being typical and chliché with you is pretty fucking amazing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	12. Future

Cole was sitting on a stony staircase which was leading from their house all the way down to the beach and looking out over the ocean. The house behind him was full of family and friends, a yearly gathering Lili had established after they had moved in five years ago. He had been surprised first, because after all, she wasn’t the one to organize parties and gatherings, let alone in their own home, but as soon as he saw her excitement he happily went along with it. And now, every year, during the first week of June, their families, some cast members and now friends from their time on Riverdale, their L.A. friends, his friends from NY, her friends from back in Ohio, hell even some people back from his and Dylan’s days on the Suite Life gathered at their house for a BBQ. It required a whole week of organizing and grocery shopping, but he would lie if he said he didn’t like it. Their crazy schedules barely allowed Lili and him to find time for just the two of them, let alone for their family and friends, so this was a very welcomed opportunity to catch up with basically everyone.

Nonetheless it also overwhelmed him sometimes and every year he reached a point during the evening, where he just knew that he had to get away for a minute, escape a little. Lili noticed. She always did. From across the pool, where she was standing with her mom and sister, she locked eyes with him and nodded hardly noticeable. He smiled at her and retreated to the stony staircase, taking deep breaths and listening to the waves hitting the rocks on the shore until he heard steps coming down towards him.

“Scoot over baby bro” Dylan exclaimed, the smug on his face audible in his voice.

Cole moved to the left a little and Dylan sat down next to him and shoved a beer into his hand.

“What are you doing down here? You can’t just bail out on all of us.” Dylan said.

“I’m not bailing out, it’s just… a little bit too much. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be back up there with you guys.”

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, looking over the ocean, taking swings of their beers from time to time.

“You know…” Dylan said suddenly. “It’s crazy that after all, we got here”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked.

“I mean that after all the craziness in our lifes we are now sitting here and it all somehow worked out well. I mean, look at you for example:

**1\. you’re married**

_*5 years earlier*_

“You okay?” Matt asked, looking at his son, who was running his hand through his hair, an unmistakable sign for his nervousness. Cole smiled shakily and stopped pacing through the room for a moment.

“Yeah, I’m good Dad. Just nervous as hell, that’s all.”

Matt smiled: “You should be. It’s your Wedding Day after all.”

“To be honest, I still can’t believe she actually said “yes”. And that she is about to do it again.” Cole said, the smile on his face widening.

“Yeah bro, nobody can believe that she actually plans on spending the rest of her life with your annoying ass.” Dylan, who had flopped down on a couch and was lazily scrolling through his I-Phone, nagged.

Cole grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. His hands were shaking and he missed.

“You’re not helping dude. Seriously.” he muttered, running his hand through his hair again.

Dylan just chuckled at his response and Cole rolled his eyes and started pacing through the room again.

He had said that he was “nervous as hell” but that was an understatement. He couldn’t describe the way he felt if he was being completely honest. If he had to put a finger on it, he’d say that the feeling in his gut was a mix of all the feelings he felt and had felt when it came to Lili. The excitement and recklessness of their beginnings, the intimacy and deep affection that just grew exponentially with every minute they spent together, the comfort her touch provided for him.

They had been together for eight years now and he couldn’t remember a moment he would have gotten bored. Every day was an adventure with her, but she was also the one person that kept him steady, the one person that never tried to fix him, but was always there to soothe his wounds. He was eternally grateful for that and so much more. Trying to describe her and what she meant to him was impossible. He would have needed at least 10 lifes to just make it to half of what he felt for her.

And now he was here, about to get married. On one hand, he had known that this day would come from the very beginning. From the very first moment he had sat eye on her, deep down inside he’d known that their connection was something else. Something stronger, something that was able to last a lifetime.

On the other hand, it was so much better than he could have ever imagined.

The fact that she would have his last name in just a few hours made him grin like an idiot, although it was something so old-fashioned. And that she was about to agree spending the rest of her life with him although she knew him better than anybody else including all the sides to him he himself didn’t like, made his heart not only beat faster, but hammer so much that he feared it would just beat right out of his chest. He knew it was cheesy and cliché, but he didn’t mind. Not with her. Because she was everything.

_A few hours later_

His nervousness was now all gone and replaced by impatience. He was standing in front of all their family and friends, his eyes wandering over the crowd, trying to calm his breathing down. There were still five minutes left until she would arrive, but time was dragging like chewing gum. He finally wanted to see her, say “yes” to her and kiss her. He wanted it more than everything since he’d gotten down to one knee a few months back.

It was in Antelope Valley. It had to be. She’d just come back from a 6-week-shoot for a movie in Chicago and after a Saturday mostly spent in bed, the next day he’d dragged her out to where one of their first adventures had taken place. He’d never forget her face, how her emotions changed from shock to pure joy and how tears rose in her eyes. Her “yes” was barely audible, almost a whisper, but it was enough for him.

The memory brought a smile to his face, just the moment music started to play behind him. He swirled around and finally, finally there she was.

It was an explosion of brightness. He had to blink twice to cope with all the sudden light in his eyes. She was glowing, everything about her was smooth and angelic. Her dress was simple but beautiful, her hair fell over her shoulders in light curls, but the brightest thing about her was her smile. And the craziest about all of it was, that she was smiling at him. He knew it the exact same moment. That he’d never forget this. That the image of her smiling at him like this, looking like the actual angel she was would forever be burned into his memory.

_*present day*_

“I mean, think about that.” Dylan’s voice brought him back to the presence. “There is actually a person that was willing to put up with your bullshit for the rest of her life. And now, five years later, it still looks like she is actually going through with it.”

Cole scoffed: “Don’t be jealous”

“As if” Dylan laughed. “I’m actually more than fine with my girl just the way we are right now.”

“I know that. But don’t you ever have the urge to… I don’t know… make it ‘real’.” Cole wondered.

Dylan shrugged. “Not yet. And I’m not sure if she has it either. One day yeah. Just not now. And you know, since you and Lili just went ahead at the grand kids front, there is now also less pressure on us. I mean:

**2\. you’re a dad**

“Shit” Lili cursed and jumped up from the couch.

Before Cole could say a word, she had covered her mouth with her hand and run out of the living room. He followed her, worried. In the hall he paused for a second to hear where she had gone. He could hear her from the bath room and it sounded an awful lot like she was throwing up. Even more worried now, he quickened his pace and entered the bath room.

She was kneeling on the floor, her head above the toilet. He immediately crouched down next to her and started rubbing her back until he felt her muscles relax and she sat back up again.

“You okay Lils? Need me to get you anything?” he asked, his voice still full of worry.

She shook her head slowly.

  
“No, I’m good. I think it’s just…”  
She didn’t finish the sentence, but instead her eyes went wide.

“You think what?” Cole was growing nervous now. “Talk to me, babe.”

“What date is it?” she asked

“The 22nd. Why? What has this…”  
It hit him like a ton of bricks. But in a very good way.

“How long?” he asked.

“A week.” she said and hurried to her feet, not able to hide her growing smile. “Come on, don’t just sit there like an idiot, we’ll need to get to a pharmacy and buy some pregnancy tests.”

_*3 months later*_

“Twins?” Lili giggled, looking over at Cole. His eyes were glued to the screen of the ultrasound.

“Can you believe this?” she asked.

He shook his head, still starring at the two beating hearts on the screen in awe. Twins. Two girls. Identical of course. Dylan wouldn’t let him hear the end of this.

The gynecologist made a move and suddenly the sound of two hearts beating in unison filled the room.

“Oh my god.” Cole gasped.

Until now, all this had seemed so abstract to him, but this, hearing their daughter’s hearts beat made it all incredibly real. It was overwhelming and wonderful, all at the same time. He felt like he was going to burst from all the happiness. And the fact that those two little girls were going to have the same relationship he had with his brother, made him even more excited.

He looked over at Lili, who had tears in her eyes.

She squeezed his hand and whispered: “We’re going to be parents.”

He got up and leaned over to her to kiss her: “I know babe. And it’s going to be amazing.”

_Allie and Annie Sprouse are born on a stormy November morning._

_*present day*_

This time, it’s little steps running down the stony staircase that bring him back to the presence.

   
Before he can turn around Allie jumps onto his back and wraps her little arms around his neck, while Annie does the same with Dylan.  
  
“Daddy, Uncle Dylan, Mommy said you guys have to come back now, or there won’t be any food left for you two.” Annie babbled.  
  
“And grandpa said, you’ll better hurry or he is coming to get you.” Allie added.  
  
“Well, we better listen to them, don’t we?” Cole asks, chuckling. 

The two little girls nodded vigoriously.  
  
Cole looked at Dylan and grinned, they both got up, earning a squeal from the little girls still clinging to their backs, carrying them all the way up the staircase.

The sun was setting by now and illuminated the garden with a soft light that made Cole’s fingers twitch for his camera. He sat Allie down on the ground again and she ran away with Annie, while Dylan went directly for his food.

Cole let his gaze wonder over the garden in search for Lili. It took him just a few seconds. He’d always loved that. That no matter how large the room was, no matter how large the crowd, they always found each other. It was an invisible and inseparable bond.

He made his way over to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She flinched a little, but then immediately relaxed into him.  
  
“Hi” he mumbled, as he buried his face in her neck.  
  
“Hey, you” she mumbled. “Feeling better?”  
  
He nodded.  
  
“What where you guys talking about?”  
  
“Just about how fucking lucky I’m to have you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	13. Mood

It had been a long week. A VERY long week. Cole took a drag of his cigarette, looked down at it and realized that it was the third one this hour. Fuck. He threw it to the ground and stepped on it. Not that it mattered, but three cigarettes an hour was touching a level of unhealthy he really didn’t want to slump down to. With a sigh he entered the apartment again, slopping down on the couch, face first into the pillow.

During the week it had been increasingly difficult for him to remain calm and not just snap at everyone that crossed his path. He’d spent his days repeating the frase: “Come down Cole, you’re overreacting.” in his mind. And he was. But he couldn’t help it. Even the smallest things pissed him off to an unreasonable extant. KJ chewing to loud. Charles not covering his mouth when yawing. Mads and Cami giggling. It all combined was a kind of sensory overload that made him want to bang his head against a wall. And the worst off all: He didn’t really know where it came from. In unnerved him not to be able to track down the root of it all, to finally deal with it and move on.

And it was not like he hadn’t tried. During his free day he’d grabbed his camera and driven out of Vancouver, deep into the woods, away from everything. While he’d been there, he’d been able to relax a little, calm down the thoughts that were spinning in his head. But as soon as he had to enter Vancouver traffic again, all progress he had made that day flew out the window, when he found himself trying not to scream at the jackass that had skipped a red light and nearly crashed into his Jeep.

And on top of all was the scene they’d filmed yesterday. That fucking scene. He remembered vividly when he’d first read it. Lili was sitting next to him in her trailer and her head snapped up from her own script when he exclaimed:

“What the actual fuck?”

“What’s wrong?”

“They’ll make him cut her tattoo off.”

“Who?”

“Jughead! They’ll make him cut Penny’s tattoo”

“What?”

He knew it was senseless trying to talk the writers out of it. The plot required that Jughead did something about Penny. Anything. Cole just wished it didn’t include mutilation. It was for the drama’s sake of course, but damn, his character had just been one of the two main figures in solving a murder, one would think he could come up with a better solution than “cutting a bitch”.

So, as he was standing there, Vancouver’s sky behind him darkening, he found the color of the sky matched his mood (he’d later realize that it had helped with getting badass!Jughead over).

He took a deep breath and switched into professional mode, a skill he’d perfectionated after years and years of working. Also, one he acquired way to early in his life. After finishing he left set with only one thought in his mind: to crawl into his bed and see or hear nothing and nobody.

Why did this affect him so much? This was a fucking fictional character and after all he’d always known how to separate himself from his characters, no matter if their names we’re Julian, Ben or Cody. Well, not so much from the latter as it been quiet a good representation of himself from time to time. But this scene just had him on the fence.

He turned around, sighed and starred at the ceiling.

“Okay Cole. Relax. We’ve been through this. You know what this is. Don’t let it hunt you down again.”

But he couldn’t help it. He felt the anxiety creep up in his gut and the irrational thoughts started spiraling in his head. The more he tried to push them away, the louder they came back. It made him want to scream and fucking cry at the same time and the fact that after all the effort to escape it, to wear it down he still couldn’t control situations like this made him angry. Irrationally angry.

So, when his phone buzzed on the coffee table, he first chose to ignore it. Then the buzzing became increasingly annoying and he just wanted it to fucking stop.

He grabbed for the phone without looking at who was calling.

“What?” It came out even more rude than he’d intended.

“Woo… someone’s in a bad mood.” On any other given day her voice would have made him smile. Not today though.

Instead the grumbled something inaudible.

“You okay?” Lili asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” for someone who had been acting all his life, he was a pretty horrible liar.

“You sure about that?”

“Pretty much”

“I’m not too convinced if I’m honest”

“For fuck’s sake Lili, if I say I’m fine, I’m fine” the harshness in his voice made him flinch.

For a moment there was just silence on the other end, then she mumbled something along lines. “The fuck? If you can’t talk like a normal person then we’ll better not talk” and hung up.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

She didn’t have any fault. He knew that. He fucking knew that.

And nonetheless he’d snapped at her. At Lili. Of all people.

For a while he sat there, wanting to kick himself, but then he realized there was only one way to fix this.

He grabbed his keys and drove over to her apartment. When he reached her door, he didn’t feel angry anymore, it felt like all of it had evaporated the moment she had hung up on him. The only thing he felt now was regret. He shouldn’t have let it out on her, she was the last person on this planet who deserved this. She was the one that always put up with his bullshit and had accepted him, with all his flaws. And there where a lot of them. He should be thanking her on his knees, not snapping at her like this.

Nervously he rang. When she opened the door, the look on her face spoke volumes. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at him reproachfully.

“Here to yell at me some more for absolutley no reason?” she asked.

“I… no. I’m sorry Lils.” he said, his voice barley audiable. “Can I come in and explain myself?”

He saw her considering it for a minute, then she huffed a breath and gestured for him to come in.  
He followed her to the living room, where she turned around, hands on her hips, obviously trying to stare him into the ground.

“I’m waiting” she said.

“Okay um… Fuck. I don’t even know how to explain this. It’s just… this week. That fucking scene yesterday. It was all a lot and I’ve been feeling anxious and annoyed all week and I don’t even know why. Even the smallest things make me want to freak out. When you called, I… I just snapped. It was stupid, and you have every right to be mad, because I’m a fucking idiot.”

He looked over at her. She had her arms crossed over her chest again, looking at him, still seeming somewhat annoyed. For a while she said nothing, just kept looking at him with her stern gaze.

“I guess… I guess, I’ll go home then.” he mumbled and turned around.

He took a step towards the door, but then suddenly felt her hand on his shoulder.

“Cole, wait.” her voice was softer now and when he turned around he saw that her expressions where too.

“You’re right.” she said. “You’re a fucking idiot. But you’re my idiot. Just remember, if you ever talk to me like that again without a reason, I’m not going to let you off the hook that easily.”

With that, she kissed him and made all the frustration melt away within a second. He wrapped his arm around her waist, happy to finally find something to hold on to after a week of just floating in sea of misery.

For a brief second, a piece of advice someone had given him years ago crossed his mind: “When you find yourself in the middle of a storm, don’t ignore it. Laugh at it. And after, treasure those who suffered through with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	14. Reunion

“Lils, come one, we’ll be late.” Cole knocked at the bathroom door.

“Just a minute” she responded.

He sighed and opened the door. She was standing there, applying mascara, then turning her face from left to right to check on her make up. When she was about to take up the mascara again he gently grapped for her hand.

“You already look unfairly hot. Leave it be.” he said with a soft voice.

Lili smiled shyly. “You think?”

Cole crooked his eyebrow at her: “Srsly, almost a decade and you still ask if I think you’re hot? I think that’s pretty obvious by now.”

Lili couldn’t help but giggle. She was a full grown women and nonetheless she felt like a teenager when he said these things. 

“Now come on, it’s L.A. traffic and we’ll be super late if we don’t get going now.” Cole grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door.

“Half of them will be late anyway” she shrugged. “Especially KJ. Isn’t he flying in from somewhere?”

“Yeah, he said something about New York. He’s been filiming there.”

They reached their car and Cole held the door open for her before getting in himself.

“Can you believe it’s been five years since we wrapped up?” Lili sighed.

“No. And to be honest, I kind of miss that leather jacket and the beanie.”

“You only miss it because you looked ridiculously hot in that leather jacket. But why the beanie though?”

“If you wear that thing for seven seasons it starts to grow on you.”

“I’m pretty sure it had a life by its own at the end” Lili laughed. “Shame they didn’t let you keep it.”

“Yes, a true shame.” he agreed.

“Although the most epic thing was still the bike. Jug and Betty finally getting out of that godforsaken town on that bike was amazing.”

...

They reached the restaurant 20 minutes later and were (like Lili had predicted) among the first to arrive. Only Hart, Sunni and Cami were already there. The latter jumped up as soon as she saw them and came almost running to hug them.

“Oh my god you guys, its been so long.” Cami exclaimed. “But I need to have a word with you.”

She crossed her arms and looked at them:

“How come I was not invited to the wedding?”

Lili and Cole sighed. Cami hadn’t been the first one to ask this question.

“How about we first sit down and then we’ll explain.” Cole said and gestured towards where Sunni and Hart were still sitting.

Lili nodded and the three of them continued towards the table.

“Sooooo?” Cami asked.

“Don’t be mad Cami, to be honest, nobody was really invited.” Lili answered.

“I was just us and our families.”

“And it was hard enough to keep that from the public eye.” Cole grumbled.

Cami’s expressions softened a little: “I can imagine. The pictures of Lili looked epic.”

She nudged Cole in the side.

“Lili did all the work, I merely took a photo.” he grinned.

An hour later everyone had arrived and it took them all of three seconds to fall back into the same atmosphere that had characterized the Riverdale set.

“Bruh, you guys remember that?” KJ exclaimed, sliding his phone towards Cole and Lili.

Cole grapped for it and took a gaze at the picture.

“Damn, that was ages ago.” he laughed, while Lili peaked over his shoulder.

“And fkn cold” she mumbled.

It was a picture of Cami, KJ, Mads and them, the day they had filmed Cheryl’s suicide attempet. All of them we’re covered in snow and just looking at the picture send a shiver down Lili’s spine.

  
Nonetheless she couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. This show had given her so much. It had made all her dreams come true, started off her career and catapulted it into heights she’d never anticipated. Emmy nominations and wins included.

And of course: Cole.

It all had come out of Riverdale and now as she was looking around the room, her gaze flickering over all the people she’d shared so much with, she couldn’t help but feel thankful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	15. Fluff

He couldn’t help himself. He had to stare at her. Cami was trying to talk to him from across the booth in the Pop’s set, but he wasn’t listening. It’s not like he was trying to be mean he just didn’t want to. Because staring at Lili, goofing around while recording the sad intent on Cherry Pie and ice cream in front of them on the table for her Instagramstories, was so much more interesting. It was very possible that he looked like a total idiot right now, but he couldn’t care any less.

It was the weirdest thing. There were days when they deliberately tried to lay it low. After all they both were fucking grown ups, they could manage to keep their hands off each other for a few hours. Not even mentioning that this was work.

And then there were days like today. When he couldn’t stop staring at her, because fuck, she was gorgeous. When he just wanted to touch her all the freaking time, lay his arm around her, feeling the weight of her head on his shoulder. She was smiling that smile for fuck’s sake. It was unfairly adorable.

So, to get her attention, he reached out and waved his hand in front of her phone’s camera. To annoy her a little, to get that little look that said: “Seriously Cole?” but at the same time brought a smile to her face. It worked. She turned around with the phone, smiling broadly, suppressing a giggle.

“Are you listening? I’m trying to talk to you Cole.” he heard Cami say.

“I’m trying to ignore you Cami.”

With a smooth swift Lili turned towards Cami, then burst out into a giggle looking at the expression on her face and put the phone down. God, she was beautiful.

They kept goofing around a little more, just until the lighting for the scene was set up properly, then everyone switched back into professional mode.

When they finally finished, Cole couldn’t help himself. In the van that got them to the next location, he pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, ignoring Cami’s eyeroll. Lili put her head on his shoulder, locking her fingers with his.

The rest of the ride he whispered stupid jokes, those kind of jokes, that nobody else understood but made him and Lili crack up. He loved to make her laugh. No matter if it was a giggle or if she laughed wholeheartedly, it made him just fucking happy to see her eyes sparkle.

“Seriously, you two look like love sick puppies.” Cami scoffed.

“Don’t be jealous.”

Cami rolled her eyes again but grinned. They were kind of cute, she had to admit that.

A few hours later

Cole had laid down on the floor, and budged his jacket together under his head, to see if he could get at least a few minutes of sleep in. It had been a long day, and there were still more than a few hours left to shoot.

The only problem was, that he was kind of a light sleeper and the constant noise around the set didn’t really help with that. There was always someone talking, the noise of something that got set up, hell even the low buzz of the cameras.

Right now, he could hear Lili’s and Cami’s and Casey’s voices floating over from the set of the student lounge, filming some light scene, that was supposed to be “best friends talk”. KJ had ran off somewhere, probably craft services. The only person that was left in the room was Drew, who was supposed to film a scene with Casey later. He tried to shut it all out, but it didn’t really work. Just right the moment he was drifting off to sleep, something new came to disturb him and he sat up and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Well then, no nap.

Suddenly he heard steps behind him, then she dropped down on the floor next to him. He hadn’t even noticed that they had finished filming the scene. Her hand came up to play with the hair right over his neck.

“Tired?” Lili asked.

He nodded.

“Yeah. But it’s impossible to nap here.”

She looked at him for a minute, shook her head a little and got up. He watched as she disappeared out of the room and came back a few minutes later, clutching two cushions.

“What the…?”

“From Betty’s room. Nobody needs them now and we’ll bring them back later. And now shush and let’s have a nap.”

Cole looked at her, not all to convinced, but then she slopped down beside him, stretching out on the floor, looking up at him.

“What are you waiting for Sprouse? It’s not like we have time to nap all day.”

For a moment he gazed around the room, then shrugged. Fuck it. She was right. He lay down next to her and pulled her close. As she snuggled against him, he felt his thoughts stop spinning. Suddenly it was just the warmth of her body cuddled up against him, the peachy smell of her hair and her breath slowing down, synchronizing with his. Everything else faded into the background. Before long, he was drifting off.

He woke again, when Lili sat up.

“Don’t” he mumbled, wrapping his arms around her again.

“I’m on now, babe.” she said with a little giggle. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and sat up too. His neck gave an uncomfortable crack, but he felt the most relaxed he had been all day.

“Don’t you have to go too?” Cole turned around to look at the clock on the wall behind them.

“I still have another 30 minutes until I have to be at the trailer set.” Lili leaned over to kiss him, then got up.

Cole reluctantly let go off her hand and looked after her. Behind him he heard Drew chuckle and turned around, looking at him with a raised eye brow.

“What?”

“You guys are just ridiculously cute. Do you even realize that? Like are you ever not touching each other?”

“Barely”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	16. Trailer

Cole saw her approaching from the corner of his right eye. He was just delivering his first line for the second to last scene of this evening. Lili came to a stop right behind one of the cameras. She followed the development of the scene attentively and Cole would have sworn he saw her mouth one of Skeet’s lines. He had to will himself not to smile. Jughead was somewhere between outraged and fired up in this scene, smiling was not an option.

  
Focusing back on Skeet he delivered the last line of the scene and slammed the door of the trailer behind him.

  
“Cut!”

  
The word seemed to lift a weight from everyone’s shoulder. A low mumble raised and people started shuffling around. The light technicans adjusted everything for the next scene, cameras where moved, a make up artist rushed over to Skeet.

  
Cole turned around and entered the trailer again. Lili had entered the set too and was leaning at the kitchen counter. She smiled at him shyly.

  
He knew that there were at least 30 minutes until the next scene so he crossed the room with three big strides.

  
“Hey beautiful.” he greeted and without much thinking pulled her in for a hug.

  
“Hey.” she mumbled into his chest.

  
Cole pulled back a little to look at her.

  
“What you doing here? You guys already done over at the Cooper’s?”

  
Lili shook her head. “No, but we have to wait for Lochlyn, they are not done filming the scene at the Blossom’s. And uhh.. I kinda..”

Cole saw the red creeping up her neck and couldn’t help but smile. Why was she blushing?

  
“You what?” he asked.

  
“This is going to sound super lame and clingy.” Lili huffed.

  
“Now I’m intrigued.”

  
He felt her take a deep breath, then she said: “I kinda.. missed you. I know it sounds ridiculous. I mean I’ve seen you just this morning and..”

  
“Lils, stop.” Cole interrupted her softly.

  
She looked up at him.

  
“It doesn’t sound lame. It’s actually insanely cute. And..” he leaned down to kiss her.

  
“I missed you too.”


	17. Kiss

“How about you just talk to her for a change?” Dylan said, adjusting his phone a little so Cole could see all off his face. They had been facetiming for half an hour now.

Cole rolled his eyes and propped his head up with his arm.

“Thanks Sherlock, I would have never come up with that.”

“Well, why don’t you just tell her then?”

Cole sighed. “It’s not that easy Dyl. I’m just… I mean, she is amazing and I’m afraid that if I tell her it might just… I don’t know, scare her away.”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “That’s ridiculous. You guys been friends for over half a year now. Actually, I’m impressed she still hasn’t fled now that she got to know you better.”

“Dylan, you are not helping.”

The older twin raised an eyebrow. “Seriously Cole, what do you want me to say? We can either keep talking about this for another hour, or you just man up and do something about it. I understand you are hesitating, after all that went down the last time, but you can’t let that influence the rest of your life.”

“I know, I know. To be honest, it’s not really that. It’s more that I want to tell her so much at once, but I don’t seem to find the right words.”

“YOU can’t find the right words? You? Oh my god, you are seriously gone for that girl.”

Cole groaned and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Dylan was right. But that still didn’t solve the problem.

He’d tried. He’d truly tried to tell her how he felt. Whenever they’d gone somewhere alone, he’d sworn to himself that he would finally tell her. But in the end, he never found the words or the courage. Somehow the doubts always crept up in his mind. There was this little voice that told him, that she was too good for him. To pure. That he couldn’t burden her with all the baggage he carried. She had enough off her own demons to fight.

“Cole?”

Dylan’s voice shook him out of his thoughts.

“Okay, maybe it’s something else. I’m not the easiest person to deal with. And you know that. I just… I don’t want to put all this shit I’m carrying around on her. She deals with enough.”

“Did you ever think about the fact, that the baggage would get less heavy if two people carry it?” Dylan asked.

Cole sat up straight at that.

“No… No, I actually didn’t.”

His brother smirked. “Well, how about you give it a try then? Didn’t you say you guys where heading out to take some photos today?”

“Yeah, in Squamish.”

And suddenly he knew. He knew that he would finally tell her today, that no matter what, he a least had to tell her, at least try. Because he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn’t.

Cole looked back down at the screen of his phone.

“Thanks, Dyl.”

“Your welcome. And report back. You know, I’m nosy as fuck.”

2 hours later

“Hi” Lili said, one of those bright smiles of hers lighting up her face, as she opened the passenger door of his Jeep.

“Hi” Cole greeted back, flashing her a smile himself. Somehow, she always managed to do that. Bring a smile to his face, even when he didn’t feel like smiling at all. Even when he felt as nervous as he felt right now.

But as they left Vancouver’s busy roads behind them and continued their way towards Squamish, his nervousness faded into the background of his head. Their conversation was flowing easily, both of them trading banter, while laughing about some things that had happened on set during the week. He’d always been astonished at that. How easy things were with her. How they just clicked in the most natural way.

He cast a quick look sideward at her, as she popped an M&M into her mouth (because of course she had brought candy), while still giggling over a joke he had made. His gaze dropped to her lips and just for second he wondered what it would feel like to kiss her. Then he forced himself to focus on the road again.

“Easy Cole.” he thought to himself. “One step after another.”

They arrived 15 minutes later, British Columbia’s beautiful nature unfolding in front of them.

He heard her gasp when they got out of the car.

“Seriously Cole, how do you always find these places?”

He shrugged: “Google is pretty useful.”

She rolled her eyes playfully and laughed. For god’s sake, she was fucking beautiful.

Suddenly his nerves were back. Damn, this wasn’t helping.

They started to explore the surroundings, camera always ready. Various times he caught himself staring at her. At the way she laughed, at the way she moved, at the way she posed in front of the camera, without actually posing. Every time she touched his shoulder or arm to point out a possible spot for a picture to him, it sent a shock wave through his body. A good one.

By the time they returned to the car, he was utterly confused. He wanted to tell her. He really wanted to, but he was so freaking nervous. As he stored his camera away in his backpack he noticed that his palms were sweaty.

Great. That didn’t help either.

He took a deep breath, while trying to pull himself together. He had to do this. There was no use in delaying it even more. He would just drive himself crazy and he had to let her know. At least give it a try.

So, when she slipped into the passenger seat he said:

“Hey Lils, can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure.” she turned his way, looking at him expectantly. God, those eyes.

“So uhm… I… Fuck, why is this so hard?”

His mind had just gone blank. As if he hadn’t imagined this conversation with her a billion times. As if he hadn’t thought about what he would say.

“Cole?” Something in her voice had changed. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

So, he looked up at her again. Her facial expression had changed too. But just like the tone of her voice, he couldn’t figure out how.

And then she breathed out: “It’s okay. I know.”

Before he could even think about a response, her lips where suddenly on his. It took him about two seconds to get over the shock, then his body reacted for him. His eyes closed, his lips moved with hers and before he knew it, his hands had come up to cup her face.

It was so much better than he could have ever imagined. The world could have ended right there for all he cared. He would have died a happy man.

When they broke apart he leaned his forehead against hers and opened his eyes. She was smiling. She was fucking smiling. He couldn’t believe his damn luck.

“How did you know?” he mumbled.

“I’m not blind Cole. And I might have talked to Debby about this.”

He groaned and laughed at the same time, slumping back into his seat: “Of course you did.”

She shrugged. “I had to talk to someone that knows you to figure out if I wasn’t just imagining things.”

Cole couldn’t help it, he had to smile: “You have no idea for how long I wanted to tell you.”

In a sudden rush of confidence, he grabbed her hand and laced her fingers through his. She didn’t protest.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I… I was afraid I’d scare you away. I was afraid you wouldn’t feel the same.”

“Scare me away?” she sounded honestly shocked. “Cole, you could never scare me away. Why would you think that?”

“Well, I’m not exactly what you’d call a ‘prince Charming’. I have a ton of baggage and I’m surly not the easiest person to deal with and…”

“Cole, stop.”

Lili put a hand on his arm and his rambling stopped immediately.

He turned to look at her again.

“I was never looking for easy. I’m not looking for somebody with some super human gifts. I just want something I can turn to. Someone I can miss. Someone I can kiss. Something just like this.”


	18. Warrior

Her stomach was still rumbling when she entered the car. She was not really sure which food had prompted this morning of throwing up, only that it was definitely food poisoning. Some years earlier while on vacation with her family, she had eaten some not so fresh seafood and consequently spent the rest of their time there in the bathroom. So she knew.

And although Lili felt horrible, there was no time for calling in sick today. This photoshoot was to big to be rescheduled and although she didn’t trust her stomach to keep in any food, she was positive she could make it through. She had survived longer days on the Riverdale set feeling a lot worse. And all that with an overprotective and worried Cole by her side who had acted like she’d break into little pieces if she did as much as getting up from a chair.

It was funny. They both never minded going to work sick, but as soon as the other one got sick, they were all over them, her talking him down, trying to convince him that he needed to stay home, him (having already given up on talking her out of things), hovering around her on set like she was a fragile little puppy.

Lili smiled a little. She didn’t know where all this fierce protectiveness had come from so suddenly, only that it was there and that she was, admittedly, confused by it.

They’d talked about it more than once, both coming to the same conclusion: They had always been highly protective about their families, but never about a significant other. And neither had an idea where it suddenly came from.

“Its like a switch clicking over.” Cole had said. “And most of the time it takes like a minute or two and then I think: ‘Calm down, you are acting like a total caveman. She can take care of herself’. But what it comes down to, I guess is that I hate seeing you hurt. Doesn’t matter if mentally or physically. I just hate it.”

And he was right about that. In the time they had been together, she’d maybe seen him truly hurt 2 or 3 times. But when it had happened, it had been awful. The way his face dropped a little, while he tried to contain his emotions, the way he started breathing harder and started tugging his hair with such a force, she’d almost feared he’d pull some out of his skull.

Just thinking about it sent a cold shiver down her spine and she shook her head to drive the thought out of her head. Everything had turned out to be okay in the end and they had always managed to find a solution to every problem, no matter how big it had seemed at first glance.

It was another thing she loved about their relationship. With every day it just felt like they were getting closer, becoming a team, communicating with as much as a pointed look. And every bump in the road, every obstacle they had overcome, had only made them stronger.

She sighed a little, when she got onto the freeway and already saw the end of a huge traffic jam approaching. Thank god, she had gotten up early, predicting that L. A.’s traffic wouldn’t do her any favor. Stopping the car, she pulled her phone out, checking her messages and snapping a pic for her Instagram. After that she plugged it in, opened SpotiFy and turned up the volume. If she was going to be stuck in traffic, at least she was going to be stuck with good music.

Drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and humming along to the music, Lili looked out the window, among all the cars and decided to pass the time she was stuck here with a little game she and her sisters had always played during long drives. One of them had pointed out a car and the others had to imagine which kind of person drove it. She’d always been rather good at it.

Her view drifted to a green MiniVan right in front of her. Through the back window she could see the heads of two blond kids, bouncing up and down in their seats, obviously very impatient. Whoever the driver was, they were definitely either exhausted or annoyed by now. Judging by the kids age and assuming that a parent drove the car, the driver should be in his or her mid-30’s, maybe a little younger. Through the back window she couldn’t make out if the person in the driver’s seat had short or long hair, but if the parent driving could be compared to hers even just a little, it was most likely the dad. A mom would have turned around and silenced her kids with as much as a pointed stare. Well, at least her’s would have.

The ring of her phone shook her from her thoughts. She grinned when she looked down at the caller ID.

Taking the call and putting it on speaker she said: “Hi babe.”

“Hi.” Cole greeted back. Lili raised her eyebrows. He sounded a little weak, almost as if he’d just woken up or just…

“Oh god, please tell me, you don’t have food poisoning too.” she exclaimed.

He chuckled lightly. “We should have skipped the Sushi maybe. I’m having the vague suspicion that the salmon wasn’t as fresh as it should have been.”

She sighed. “Great. Well at least we now know where we are not going to eat again any time soon. You got anything on your scedule today?”

“No. But you’re on your way to a photo shoot, right?”

“Yeah, but I’m stuck on the freeway, playing ‘Who is the driver?’ with myself. You know, the game you are always losing?”

He scoffed: “I’m losing because you are making up your own score system and you change it like it suits you.”

“I’m not, you’re just a sore loser, Sprouse.”

She heard him take a breath to answer, but then he mumbled: “Shit, one sec.” and she heard the phone drop and his fast footsteps. About five minutes, and two Ariana Grande songs later, he was back.

“I’m sorry, that Salmon wanted to say hi again. Seriously babe, how are you up and walking? I’m pretty sure I’m not going to leave the house today.” Lili smiled a little to herself.

“Guess I’m just to responsible for my own good.”

“No, you are a warrior babe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	19. Chicago

The convention had been fun. Much more fun than she had expected it to be. It was not like she dreaded going there, but these kinds of events tended to be pretty exhausting and with all the time zone hopping she had done during the last few weeks, she had been prepared to just feel overly tired all the time.

And there had been a major lack of sleep, as her jetlag went full force during the first night she’d been in Chicago.

Somehow, she had ended up falling down a skincare rabbit hole that night. Half of the products she’d bought would be useless, as they didn’t even match her skin type, but she was already making plans on gifting them to her sisters and friends.

A little smile stole up her face when she remembered texting Cole if he could drive over to her place to get the packet inside so it wouldn’t sit in front her door for the next two days and she’d be able to avoid the forced conversation with her neighbor during which she pretended to be nice to a person that had her sit up straight in bed every morning while blasting Vivaldi and Mozart.

His answer had come within a few minutes:

Cole: Sure. Did Insomnia drive someone down a skincare rabbit hole last night?

Lili: Maybe so.

Cole: I’m not judging. How do you think I got most of the camera stuff I technically don’t need, but still have? I decided it’s a phenom. It’s called “Insomnia-Bullshit-shopping.”

Other than her late-night Amazon adventures and the lack of sleep Chicago had been great. She liked interacting with the fans and luckily everyone had been pretty respectful. Plus, it had been a very good chance to catch up with Mads.

But as the plane touched down at LAX, she couldn’t help take a deep, relieved breath. It felt good being back. It felt like coming home. Despite everything that had happened in this city, despite all the negative experiences she’d made here, L. A. was now home to her. Maybe not as much as Ohio or North Carolina, but still. It had been here that she’d gotten the news that she’d been casted as Betty. She’d made friendships here that she was sure were strong enough to last a lifetime. He was here.

“So Lilipad, what are you doing with the rest of evening?” Mads asked as they stepped out into the arrival area.

Lili shrugged: “Not much. Unpacking, food and catching up on sleep I guess. There is also some stuff I still need to unpack at the apartment.

Mads raised an eyebrow. “No plans with lover boy?”

Lili rolled her eyes at the nickname and shook her head: “He’s spending time with his family, but I’ll see him tomorrow. It’s not like we are glued to each other Mads.”

“You sure about that?” Mads mocked. “It always seems like that on set.”

“Look who is talking.” Lili replied.

“Point taken” Mads laughed.

…

When the Uber finally arrived in front of the apartment building she’d decided that nothing of the unpacking she’d told Mads about would be happening tonight. She was definitely too tired. A shower, food and then bed. That was the plan.

She climbed up the flight of stairs, her suitcase feeling like it got heavier with every step.

“Can I help you with that?”

The familiar voice made her turn around on her heels. He was standing there, a grin almost threatening to split his face in half.

“Well, I don’t know. I’m normally a fairly independent woman that can handle her own luggage.”

His grin spread even wider, although she had thought that wouldn’t be possible.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” he said and winked. “Furthermore, I saw you almost falling down the stairs backwards a few moments ago and we can’t risk any damage to such a beautiful face.”

She felt a blush creeping up her face and almost rolled her eyes at herself. God, how did he always do that?

“Plus” Cole added and held up a bag of Japanese take out. “I brought food.”

That was all it took. Lili left the suitcase in the middle of the staircase, almost ran down and hugged him with such a force that he stumbled back a few steps before catching himself and wrapping his arms around her.

“I missed you.” she mumbled into his neck.

“I missed you too” he murmured and pulled back a little to kiss her.

“So,” she said, when he pulled away again. “That offer of you carrying my luggage still stands?”

He laughed, and they continued up the stairs. “Sure.”

But his face fell a little when he lifted the suitcase. “Oh my god, seriously Lili, what did you pack? Rocks?”

She shrugged and winked at him. “You know, we can’t all wear the same shirt four days straight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	20. Pictures

Two things happened at once. Lili’s phone started ringing and someone knocked on the door of the hotel room.

“For fucks sake, what now?” Cole grumbled. They’d just settled in on the room’s couch, trying to catch up on sleep with a nap after exploring Paris a little more during the morning.

They both sighed as they got up, Lili heading in the direction of her phone, Cole going for the door.

He stopped in his tracks when he heard Lili answer her phone: “God, Cami calm down. Why are you yelling? Use your words, one after another.”

He shook his head lightly. It must’ve been around 7 a.m. in New Orleans, what was Cami doing up already?

Another, more impatient knock came from the door.

“One sec.” Cole called out, taking the last few steps and opening the door, surprised to find Skeet and Madchen standing in the hallway.

Suddenly this started to feel like some weird mix of reality and fiction. He felt transported back to one of the scenes of Jughead beating up Chic in the Cooper’s basement they had filmed a few weeks ago and was half expecting Skeet to grab him by the collar and drag him out of the room. But only until he saw Casey coming up the hallway, half running, yielding his phone, yelling:

“WTF you guys?”

In the background Lili was now FaceTiming Cami trying to make sense of the half formed squeals.

When Casey arrived at the door Cole arched an eyebrow at him:

“What the fuck to what?”

Casey scoffed: “Oh I dunno. Maybe that?”

He lifted his phone and Cole drew out a breath: “Oh yeah, that.”

“Yeah that?” Madchen crossed her arm over her chest. “That’s all?”

“We’ve been…” Skeet started, but Madchen interrupted him with a cough and a glare. “Okay, I’VE been talking around your guys relationship for months and you just go and throw all caution into the wind?”

Lili came up from behind, joining them at the door now.

“I think you guys are here because of the same reason Cami decided to call and ask me questions in a voice that only dogs can hear?” she asked, looking at all of them pointedly.

“Okay, for how long have you guys been aware that these pics would be released?” Casey asked.

Cole shrugged: “An hour, maybe two. Also, we were kind of expecting it? Those paps are not exactly experts when it comes to hiding. They are embarrassingly obvious to be honest.”

Skeet looked surprised: “You too are totally unfazed by this aren’t you?”

Lili sighed: “I wouldn’t call it unfazed Skeet. But the pictures are out there now and what are we going to do about it? It’s not like it was a super guarded secret, thanks to Mr.-Heart-Eyes over here.”

She nudged Cole shoulder lovingly and he scoffed: “Yeah I’m totally the only obvious one in this relationship. But seriously, the people who cared knew anyway. Why making a fuss and give it more attention than necessary? Life goes on.”

Madchen laughed: “Well you’re right about that.”

Her, Skeet and Casey left, but later that day they had the same conversation with Lochlyn and Marisol. Mads sent a surprised voice message not without complementing Lili’s outfit, Ashley and KJ sent texts in all caps and Drew one of the fotos with a complete row of 14 question marks. There was some teasing from Debby, Mad Hill and Dylan too.

Later that night, they collapsed onto the bed, tired from all the sight seeing and having to explain themselves. They would be going back to L. A. the next day, which was, after all a return to tranquility and a somewhat normal rhythm of life.

Lili turned towards Cole, her fingers toying with the beige scarf that was still around his neck.

“You know.” she mumbled. “I thought I would be so much more stressed out about it when this happened and it surprises me that I really don’t give a fuck.”

She saw him think for a minute, twirling one strand of hair around his index finger: “I mean same. To be honest, I think it’s the fact this doesn’t change a thing. It doesn’t change us. It doesn’t change what we have. Let them fucking know. It’s not like we are going full on Kardashian after this.”

Lili shivered a little at that. “Oh my god, not in a billion years.”

He turned towards her now, a soft smile on his face and his hand came up to lightly caress her cheek.

“On a completely other note.” he said. “Next week around this time we are going to be on deserted beach, while not moving a muscle.”

She smiled, feeling impatient and giddy at the same time when she pecked his lips shortly: “I seriously can’t wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	21. Those three words

“God, this is beautiful.” Lili said, leaning onto the reeling of Debbie’s balcony, crooking her head a little to not stare directly into the sun.

Cole looked up from stroking one of the cats behind its ears.

“She sure has a great view from up here.” he said, standing up and making his way over to her. He slung his arm around her shoulder lazily and she leaned into him just a little bit, just enough to make this warm and giddy feeling spread inside him.

For a second, he gave into the thought that in a few years’ time, they could be standing on a terrace too, watching over L. A. while the sun was sinking on the horizon. But then it would be their place, maybe with their own puppy running around instead of the cats. They were only a few months into their relationship and still trying to figure things out, but somehow, he was sure that it would be happening. Maybe it wouldn’t even be L. A., their way of life made it very likely that it could be any other place, but he knew that it would be with her.

They stood there for a while, just looking at the sun slowly go down, leaning onto each other and when the sun had almost disappeared, Lili asked:

“So, what do you wanna do now?”

A low grumble from her stomach answered the question for her.

She blushed and buried her face into his neck.

“That answers the question, I guess.” Cole laughed. “Take out?”

Lili shook her head. “Maybe we could… I mean you live here too, so we can take out groceries of the fridge, right? Maybe we could cook up some pasta?”

He raised an eyebrow at her: “Us? Cooking? You remember the last time we tried that?”

His mind wandered back to that one night in Vancouver when they tried to get pasta done and actually managed to burn sauce. (Okay yeah, maybe they got… distracted).

“Well, only practice makes you better.” Lili shrugged.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure if Debby would appreciate us burning her kitchen down”

Lili rolled her eyes. “We won’t. Cooooooome on! Pretty please?”

“You know I can’t say no when you look at me like that. That’s not fair.” Cole huffed.

“Pleaaaaaase.” she said again, and he sighed.

“Okay, but I tell you, the kitchen is going to be a mess and you are going to explain it to Debby if we burn it down.”

“Deal.”

…

He had been right. It took them about 30 minutes to turn the kitchen into a whole battle field.

“This is only pasta? How did we end up like that?” Lili asked, throwing her hands in the air.

“I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.” Cole answered, while looking around for a rag to clean up all the sauce that had spilled from the overboiling pot.

“Don’t get all cocky about it.” she scoffed.

“But…” Cole pushed his bottom lip forward, making her laugh despite all the mess around the kitchen. “I like to be right.”

She stepped closer, circling his neck with her arms and looked up at him. “You sure do, don’t you?”

“Mhm.” he mumbled, leaning in to kiss her. But before he could lean down all the way, her hand had shoot out towards the pot, dipped into it and smudged sauce all over his face.

He stood there, stunned for a moment, then he narrowed his eyes at her.

“Oh, you didn’t Reinhart.”

Lili put her hands to her hips and grinned at him defiantly. “I sure did. What your gonna do about it?”

They stared at each other for a minute, then Lili took off, wildly giggling and Cole sprinted after her. By the time they reached the living room, Cole caught her by the waist, picking her up, dropping her down on the couch and tickling her mercilessly until she was laughing so much that tears were streaming down her face.

“Stop.” she breathed out, between her giggles. “Please, I can’t breathe anymore.”

Cole let go off her and they both sat up, Lili catching her breath while slumping back on the couch. He looked over at her and couldn’t help but stare. She was even more beautiful when she smiled or laughed although he had thought that wouldn’t be possible. He looked at her for her a second, trying to find words to say and then:

“God, I love you.” it just came out, without him even thinking about it.

Lili froze and turned her head towards him. It took a minute for her brain to catch up to what he just said, because although she might have thought about those three little words, about saying them to him and viceversa, she hadn’t been sure how to go about it. But now he had said it first and she realized that it had been easy all along. So she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, leaned in for an almost bruising kiss and then mumbled against his lips: “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	22. Cravings

“Cole?”

He groaned and buried his face deeper into the pillow. Not now. He just wanted to sleep. Seriously just let him sleep.

For a few moments she didn’t say a thing. He was back to being half asleep, when she nudged him again.

Turning his face halfway so his words wouldn’t be entirely swallowed by the pillow he said:

“It’s like 3 a. m. Lils. What is it?”

“It’s 2 a. m. and I’m hungry.”

He lifted his head and gave her a stern look. “You know there is this great invention that keeps food fresh and cool. It’s called a fridge and we have one in this room called kitchen. The hallway down to the left, but don’t tell anyone.”

She scoffed. “You know as well as I do, that its empty. Come on, lets hit up Taco Bell.”

“Oh my god, you are actually serious about this.”

“Have you ever heard me joking about food?”

Cole turned onto his side and propped his head up on his hand.

“I mean, no, but…”

“Great, lets go!” and before he could say anything more, she was already out of bed, opening the doors to the closet and pulling out a jeans and sweatshirt.

“Okay, when did I actually say I was gonna go along with this?”

“You didn’t say it, but I know you are going to anyway.” she turned around and threw him a shirt with a smirk.

“What makes you so sure about that?”

“Because you love me, and you can’t say no to anything.”

“That’s pretty manipulative Lils.”

She clasped her hands togehter, looked at him and pushed her bottom lip forward. “Pretty please?”

He sighed. “That’s unfair and you know it.” and after a pause and another sigh. “Okay, fine. Let’s go.”

30 minutes later

They entered the Taco Bell closest to the apartment and Cole found that he was actually enjoying this. Because given the time and that it was a week day, nobody was around. They had been able to walk the whole way here without encountering a soul.

Which meant, he got to sling his arm around Lili’s shoulder while they were walking, without having to constantly watch their backs for people sneaking a picture with their cellphone. He quietly thanked the universe that this was Vancouver and not L. A. where, no matter what time it was, there was always a buzz and the streets seemed to be always busy. Come to think about it, New York might not be the only sleepless city in the United States after all.

Even the Taco Bell was almost deserted, except for some night owls here and there, which were thankfully minding their own business.

Lili nudged him in the side while they were waiting in line for their food and pointed her chin into the direction of one of the other guests. “Look, a Jughead.”

Cole turned his head and grinned. She was right, about 20 feet away from them sat a dark-haired guy, typing away on his laptop, a beanie tucked deep into his forehead, with a brooding look on his face. He only lacked the flannel and the Sherpa jacket.

“He pulls it off better than I do.” he chuckled and turned his head towards her again.

“Maybe we should give the role to him.” she teased.

“Nah.” Cole said. “I mean, then I wouldn’t be able to do this…” he stole a quick kiss from her. “And get paid for it. Imagine what a miserable life that would be.”

She feigned offense. “I knew it, you were only doing it for the money.”

“You figured me out.” he laughed and pulled her a little closer. “Although, on second thought, there is another reason.”

“There is? Interesting. And that would be?” her tone had become all flirty now and he thoroughly enjoyed this little game.

“You’re a pretty good kisser.” with that, he leaned in, kissing her again, a little longer this time.

Lili smiled when he pulled away. “I can only return the compliment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	23. Chipotle

“It’s literally impossible. How are we supposed to pick just one?”

“I know right? I think we are a little in over our heads here babe.”

Cole looked around the animal shelter again. They had been here for two hours now. He didn’t really remember who of them had this brilliant idea of adopting a dog first (probably him. No scratch that, very much likely him), but it proved to be harder than they had it expected to be.

Because no matter how many dogs they saw, they somehow just kept getting cuter.

“Its like they took any dog that is even remotely cute and dropped it here. I mean look at that face, for the love of god.” Lili picked up a little French bulldog. He was barely more than a puppy.

“Oh my god, he looks exactly like Bubba when he was a puppy. It’s almost uncanny.” Cole said.

Lili saw a soft smile spread on his face when he remembered his childhood dog.

“So, I guess its decided?” she asked.

“I mean, only if you are okay with it.”

“As if I could say no to that face.” Lili laughed and nestled her nose against the puppies. “Did you hear that little guy? You are coming home with us.”

They had wanted to adopt a dog for forever. But with their crazy schedules and them spending their time between Vancouver and Los Angeles during the year, it just seemed like a lunatic thing to do. But Riverdale had wrapped up 6 months ago and although they both missed the rest of the cast and the atmosphere on set, as well as Vancouver, their schedules had slowed down just enough to finally go through with it. They were still busy, but at least one of them would always be home to care enough for the new little member of the family.

…

“Okay, but how are we going to name him?” Lili asked, when they were driving home, their new puppy securely placed in a transport box on the backseat. “I mean he certainly looks the part, but we can’t just name him Bubba the II.”

Cole laughed: “God no. That gives me major Simpson vibes and their cat died like every 5 seconds. We really need to find something else.”

They started throwing names back and forth for a while, until just a few minutes away from their home, something caught Cole’s eye.

“Chipotle” he said suddenly.

Lili turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, now you are just messing with me Sprouse.”

“No, I actually mean it. It would be so us to name him like that. You love that place and thanks to that fact I’ve been eating there more than is probably healthy, makes it the perfect name.”

He pulled into their driveway and they both got out of the car. Lili opened the backdoor and took the dog out of his transport box.

“What do you say buddy?” she cooed. “Chipotle? Do you like that name?”

The puppy licked her face and Cole laughed.

“I think he likes it.” he chuckled.

“Seems like it” Lili grinned.

A few hours later

“You ready to meet your new nephew?” Cole asked his twin brother, who was grinning at him from the screen of his I-Phone.

“Now stop teasing you jerks and just show him.” Dylan said.

“Okay.” Lili chimed in and dropped done next to Cole, while having Chipotle in her arms. “Meet Chipotle. Chipotle, this is your uncle Dylan. And that other puppy in the back, that’s your cousin Magnus. He doesn’t seem like it, but he is very ecstatic to meet you.”

Dylan looked at them for a second and then burst out into a fit of laughter. “You seriously named him Chipotle?”

“Why, is their anything wrong with that?” Cole asked, not able to hide his smirk while faking offense.

“No.” Dylan chuckled. “Its just… oh god, it’s so purely you guys. And damn, he looks so much like Bubba when he was a puppy.”

“I know right? I said the exact same thing when we were at the shelter. It’s super uncanny.”

“Well, he surly will have to meet his cousin soon.” Lili said. “Aren’t you guys coming to L.A. in like, two weeks?”

“Yeah, depends on how things will be going with the bar and the new supplier. That was kind of a mess during the last few weeks.”

They kept on talking for a while and after they hung up, it was almost time for dinner.

“So, what do you wanna eat?” Cole asked, looking over at Lili, while stroking the dog who had laid down beside him.

Lili turned around and grinned. “How about we get some takeout from Chipotle?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	24. Move in

“When are you off tonight?” Cole asked, looking over at Lili who had propped her arm up on the arm of her chair and was drifting somewhere between being awake and light slumber.

She straightened, stretching her arms and neck.

“Around nine I think. Why?”

“I was just wondering if you want to come back to my place tonight. I’m off at 8, I can wait around.”

Lili thought for a moment. Due to their wildly different schedules (Cole filming a ton of scenes with the Serpents, her being more involved with the Cooper-Family-Storyline), it had been a week since she’d fallen asleep next to him. She would be lying if she’d say that she didn’t miss him, but she also didn’t want him to stay around and wait for her, when he could be at home, relaxing.

“I mean, I’d love too, but you don’t have to…”

“Lils. It’s okay, I can wait. Its not like I’d bore myself to death around here.” he interrupted. “And we could get some Chipotle.”

“Okay, now that’s an argument” she grinned.

“You prefer Mexican food over my company?” he feigned offence. “That hurts Lili.”

“I’m positive you’ll survive” she grinned and nudged his shoulder.

“Barely.”

…

From the corner of her eye, Lili saw Cole entering the Make-Up trailer, car keys already dangling from his left index finger, seemingly all ready to finally leave the set.

“Lover boy is a little impatient today, isn’t he?” Erin, her make-up artist asked with a grin.

Lili just giggled at that. If she was being completely honest, by now, she was impatient to go home too. Even though she didn’t fully admit it to herself, she was craving a little alone time with him. Not the fancy kind of alone time, which meant grabbing dinner at some restaurant or going on an adventure (although she loved them). No, what she was really craving was the simplest kind of alone time anyone could think of: pulling on some sweats and curling up next to him on the couch, the low murmur of some Netflix show in the background while she slowly drifted off to wonderland. She didn’t know if she’d ever find a way to describe how it felt. How even doing absolutely nothing could become the most exciting thing in the world. Maybe it was what belonging somewhere felt like. Maybe it was what home felt like.

…

When they entered Cole’s apartment, Lili let out a breath of relieve. It felt like all the tension and stress she’d been exposed to during the day fell off her immediately.

She had always been surprised at how fast this place, his apartment, had started to feel like home to her. After only a few weeks she had become able to walk the whole apartment in the dark and find everything she needed, without a second thought.

After they both had changed into sweatpants and Lili had bat her eyelashes half a second to get one of Cole’s shirts, they dropped down on the couch, takeout containers in hands and an espisode of Black Mirror on TV.

A comfortable silence emerged between them and Lili felt her whole body relax when she sagged against him, his arm coming around her shoulder, almost out of habit. She’d come to love how normal all of this had become, how even though the world around them was constantly buzzing, here in their little bubble they were always able to lock all the noise out.

“I wish we could do this every night.” the words had left her mouth before she even realized.

She felt Cole tense a little next to her and lifted her head from his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head a little.

“Nothing” he answered. “But I… I was actually thinking about that.”

He suddenly seemed a little nervous, his hand coming up to wrap one strand of hair around his finger.

“I mean… you spent most of your time here anyway and uhm… I mean, why not move in here?”

He turned around to look at her, half nervous, half hopeful.

Lili was surprised by his suggestion for a moment, but then it started to intrigue her. Falling asleep next to him. Waking up next to him every morning. Enjoying the simple joy of domesticity.

She looked at him again, a smile forming on her face.

“I’d love to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	25. Paris

When the alarm went off Lili felt like she had slept all of 5 minutes. Groaning she pulled a pillow over her head and waited for the offending sound to stop.

Technically she should be jumping out of bed, all excited about the fact that she was in Paris for the first time in her life. But jetlag was a bitch and every cell in her body was screaming for just a little more sleep. Just another five minutes.

The muffled sound of a door closing penetrated through the pillow and although her tired mind was barely working, she figured it must have been the bathroom door. Which meant Cole was up already.

How. the. fuck. was. he. up. already?

She’d probably never understand how he functioned with the little sleep he got sometimes. His sleep schedule wasn’t as fucked up as it was when they had meet, but somehow, he still managed to never sleep before she did and be up earlier than she was.

A few seconds passed, then the alarm suddenly stopped, and she felt the mattress moving next to her. Cole’s hand came up to massage her neck gently.

“Lils, come on, we’re going to be late.” he kept his voice low and soft, a fact she appreciated but didn’t really help with waking up.

She mumbled something into the mattress.

“What?”

Lili turned onto her back, removed the pillow from her head and blinked against the brightness that was already flooding the room.

“What time is it?” she repeated.

“8. And we really have to get going soon if you want to have breakfast before we leave”

She rubbed her eyes, blinked again and looked at him. He was already fully dressed and seemed ready to go.

“How long have you been awake?” she asked, while stretching and stifling a yawn.

“About two hours.”

“Two hours?”

He shrugged: “I couldn’t sleep anymore.”

“I seriously don’t get how you manage to be a functioning person sometimes.”

He winked at her: “I don’t, that’s the secret. Advantage of having worked for Disney as a kid. People don’t expect you to become a normal functioning adult.”

Lili couldn’t help giggle at that. She was still tired, but within 5 minutes he’d managed to brighten up her mood considerably.

Cole got up and offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her out of bed, right into his arms. They stayed like that for a few brief seconds, just because.

Then he mumbled into her hair: “Come on, get into one of those hype beast outfits, there are people waiting for us.”

Two days later

It was the first day they would be spending sightseeing and Lili was beyond excited. Her body had finally caught up to the European time zone and so she was up with the first lights filtering through the curtain of their hotel room.

Rivercon had been fun, but it was this part of their trip she had been looking forward to the most. Paris had been on her “go-to” list ever since she’d first seen “Moulin Rouge” for the first time and the fact that she would be able to walk around this beautiful city today, was a dream come true. From the minute their trip overseas had been confirmed, she’d been making plans and had searched the internet for the quickest ways to get to all the landmarks, restaurant and bakeries.

The only problem: her boyfriend wouldn’t get up, despite various threats that she would spill a glass of water right into his face.

Lili grabbed Cole’s arm and tugged hard, which made him almost fall out of bed. He’d forgotten how surprisingly strong she was.

“Cooooome on Cole, up and at ’em”

He turned his face towards her, just enough so he could arch an eyebrow at her.

“Did you just MamaCoop me?”

“Damn right I did. Now let’s go, there is so much too see and we don’t have even remotely enough time.”

He sighed and burrowed his face into his pillow again.

“Just 5 more minutes Lils. I seriously didn’t get enough sleep last night”

“And whose fault was that, huh?” she grinned.

“Yours, for looking so breathtakingly gorgeous. Nobody in the history of humankind would be able to think straight when you look like this.”

“Sure, Mr.-three-buttons-open. This works both ways, ya know?”

Lili sat down on the bed and started to bounce up and down.

“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.”

“Fine.” Cole sat up and lifted his hands in defeat. “I’m awake.”

“Great, now throw on some cloth and I’ll meet you downstairs.” Lili said, already half into the hallway.

“Do I have the permission to shower?” Cole yelled after her.

“Do what you need to do, but do it quickly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	26. Let them know

Lili felt Cole’s hand slip into hers and squeeze hers lightly, while she was looking at the tall New York building Damon’s studio was in.

“You ready?” he asked. “I mean we can always just go back to JFK and catch the next flight back to L.A.”

She shook her head violently. “No. I’m so fucking done hiding. I want to do this.”

She turned on her heels to face him. A smile had formed on his face, one she couldn’t quiet decode, something between amusement and deep affection.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.” he mumbled. “I was just thinking about how much has changed during these last two years. It’s so weird and so much better at the same time.”

Lili had to admit that he was right about that. Her whole life had dramatically changed in the last two years. She herself had changed. There was so much more confidence inside her, so much more trust in her own abilities. During those last two years she’d done, seen and experienced things she’d never thought possible. Riverdale had turned everything around and she’d never be not thankful for that. There were still battles to fight, but what would life be without them?

And then of course him. The careful beginnings of their relationship, starting out as friends, getting along surprisingly well, better than she would have ever thought. The banter, the flirting they thought nobody noticed, but was, as they later found out, pretty much obvious to everyone. How confused she had been by it all, how scared she’d been at the thought that they would be working together. All the questions she’d asked herself, questions she’d been brooding over for weeks until that first kiss had wiped them all away.

It had been a roller coaster ride since then. Not so much for what happened between them. Their relationship had found its groove, a calming mix between deep adoration, passion, love and the constant banter. Everything that had really caused them problems had come from the outside. The constant speculation, people assuming things, people flat out asking about stuff that was none of their business. They’d handled it all and it had only made them stronger.

But she was so done with hiding all those things. She was done with almost having to jump from his side every time a camera was pointed at them. So, done with having to take care with what and who she took a picture of for her Instagram. Done with always having to watch her back. Sure, it had taken some time, but she was okay with people knowing now. Most of those who cared did anyway. It’s not like they were very good at being subtle.

So, they had arranged this photoshoot with Damon. They’d been toying with the idea for a few months now. Nothing major. The photos weren’t going to be published in any magazine (“For the love of god, lets keep our faces of covers like People Magazine. I’ll be six feet under and still fucking cringing about that.” – Cole). The plan was that they would take the photos, then both decide for one to go on their Instagrams and keep the rest to themselves.

“You know, I’m actually a little excited about this.” Lili said, when they entered the elevator. “I mean after all Damon is going to take these pics and that means they are going to look bomb ass.”

Cole grinned: “They sure will. He wouldn’t tell me for the life of him what he had in mind. The only thing I know is that they are going to be in black and white. That’s about it. And believe me, not for lack of trying.”

Lili grinned: “Did you try to bribe him?”

He scoffed: “Bribing Damon? Hell will be freeze over before you can bribe Damon over his photography.”

A few minutes later they entered Damon’s studio and were both greeted with a bear hug.

“So, we are finally doing this, huh?” Damon asked with a wink.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Lili answered.

“Good. There are outfits for the both of you in the rooms at the end of the hallway. Yours is on the right Cole, yours on the left Lili. Tracey and Hannah – the stylists – are there too. Let’s do this.”

A few hours later

Cole almost gulped on his water when Lili entered the studio again. He’d finished dressing up about half an hour ago, nothing to major. Damon had told the stylist to keep it sexy but elegant, so they had him dressed up in a basic tailored suit with a white shirt under it, without a tie – thank fuck for that – the first three buttons open, – okay, he had done that as soon as the stylist left the room and nobody had complained so he figured it was okay – and dress shoes.

But Lili… Damn, she was a vision in black. He quiet frankly didn’t know where to look first. They’d put her in a long, black, lacey dress with a cut high enough to make her legs seem endless but keep it classy and just enough cleavage. It was all rounded up by the black high heels, he knew she’d curse about in two hours. Her hair fell over her shoulders in waves and if he’d known shit about make-up he would probably have had to say something about how good it looked too, but he didn’t.

An amused smile played on her lips as she approached them.

“What are you staring at Sprouse?” she teased.

“You seriously have no idea what you look like, do you? Damn Lils.”

A few days later

They were sitting on their couch, both leaning forward, staring at the three pictures they had narrowed it down to.

Now they were stuck.

“All of them are amazing.” Lili mumbled. “Its literally impossible to pick one.”

“I know” Cole mumbled while running his hand through his hair. “Why the fuck has Damon to be so talented? You know what? Fuck it. You close your eyes and point at one and that’s the one we’ll take. They are all amazing, we can’t do much wrong.”

She looked at him questioningly. “You think we should do that? I mean…” she trailed off and went quiet for a second. “Shit, I don’t have a better idea. Let’s do it.”

Lili closed her eyes, raised her hand and let her finger collide with the lap top screen. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that she had landed on the middle one.

It was the one in which she was leaning back into Cole, his hands on her hips, her left hand reaching behind her to circle his neck and bring him closer.

“So that one it is.” he said.

“That one it is.” she nodded.

A few minutes later the pictures had been downloaded to their phones and they were sitting in front of their individual Instagram accounts. They would only post the picture. No capture. There would be enough commentary anyhow.

“Ready?” Cole asked.

She nodded: “Ready.”

And they both hit “post”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	27. Nightmare

Cole woke with a wince when he felt a slap across his chest. Confused he sat up and looked around the hotel room. It was the middle of the night and judging by his phone’s clock, he’d been sleeping for about two hours. Which was not remotely enough, considering the enormous jetlag he and the rest of the cast were nursing.

Another slap hit him, this time on his lower arm and he turned to look at Lili. She was still asleep but tossing and turning. And now that he was slowly but surely waking up he also realized that she was mumbling in her sleep. Low, fast mumbles, almost breathless.

“Shit.” he murmered.

This wasn’t the first time something like this was happening. The first time it had happened, he’d almost fallen out of bed because she’d scared the shit out of him, tossing and turning heavily and waking up with a scream. That night he had found out that she had pretty intense nightmares.

Over the course of the last year he’d found that it happened especially after emotionally stressful events. A complicated scene. A dreading day of press. Or… like today, a convention. It had been great to meet all these people, but also extremely exhausting.

Cole reached over to her, placed his palm softly on her cheek and stroked over it gently.

“Hey Lils” he mumbled. “Wake up.”

She turned again, another mumble falling from her lips.

He grabbed her shoulder, shook her carefully and said a little louder: “Babe. Wake up!”

Lili set up so quickly, he had to pull back rapidly to not get knocked over.

“What happened? Is everything all right? Why are you awake?” she was whispering the words rapidly and he wasn’t entirely sure if she even knew she was saying them.

“You had nightmare.” he mumbled. “You were tossing, turning and slapping.”

“Oh.” her voice was barely audible. “I’m sorry.”

Cole smiled gently and took her hand: “Its okay, babe. Shit, you are shaking.”

“I’m good, don’t worry.” she responded, her voice still shaking. “Go back to sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

“Lils” he mumbled and brought his hand up to stroke his thumb over her cheek again. “Don’t do that. My sleep schedule is fucked up anyway. But we both know that you need your sleep. So maybe let’s find a way to calm you down first and get you back to sleep?”

“You got an idea?” she asked. “Because I feel hyper awake now and I don’t have to slightest clue how to go back to sleep.”

Cole thought for a minute, then a smirk appeared on his face. She knew that smirk. It was his “I-just-had-a-fucking-amazing-idea-and-no-I’m-not-going-to-shut-about-it-until-you-tag-along”-smirk.

“I actually do.”

He got up from the bed, grabbed the first two sweaters he could reach from his suitcase (they hadn’t bothered unpacking when they arrived. Not enough time and they were way to lazy to be honest) and handed it to her.

“Put that on” he said while pulling on a pair of sweatpants and his own hoody.

Lili looked at him questioningly for a second, then shrugged. If she’d learned one thing during the last two years it was that when Cole had an idea the best thing was to just tag along with it. She never ended up disappointed.

Cole reached out his hand to her, pulled her out of bed and toward the balcony door.

“You’ve never seen Paris by night, have you?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve seen pictures.” Lili mumbled, deciding to overlook the fact that this was her first time here. It was to late for sarcasm.

“Then you’ll love this.” Cole said, pulled the door open and lead her outside.

The first thing Lili felt was the chilly air on her skin, cutting even through her sweater, but then she lifted her head and her breath caught in the back of her throat.

“This is amazing.” she whispered.

The lights of Paris were spreading out as far as she could see and right in front of them, the Eifel tower was sparkling through the cold night. The city seemed to be bustling and calm at the same time and although she was still shivering, she was not sure that it originated only from the chilly night air.

Cole arms wrapped around her from behind and she leaned back to him, taking deep breaths one at a time, keeping her eyes locked at the lights in front of her. She didn’t know how long they stood there, just watching the lights but at some point, she leaned her head fully back on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Tired?” he whispered, the soft smile on his face audible.

“Yeah” she mumbled, opened her eyes again and tilted her head up a little, just enough to kiss him gently. “Lets go back to bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	28. Sick

“Fuck babe, you are boiling.”

“Bullshit, it’s just a little cold.”

“A little cold my ass. You really should call in sick. You are having a fever Cole.”

“I don’t” he said, while suppressing a cough. Sure, he feelt like shit, his whole body was aching and he couldn’t even smell the coffee he was clinging to properly, but he was going be stubborn about this. They had an important scene today and he was pretty sure he could work through it. It wouldn’t be the first or the last time he’d do so.

Across the kitchen Lili looked at him with a stern look and they locked eyes, battling out who would cave in first. They were both stubborn enough to keep this going for the rest of the day, maybe even tomorrow, he knew that, but in the end it was Lili who gave in.

“Fine” she huffed. “But this is going to end with me telling you: I told you so. Keep that in mind.” she pointed a finger at him.

Of course she would be right. She always was. But hell would freeze over before he’d admit that.

A few hours later

He was sliding on the Serpent jacket, trying to ignore the chills running down his spine. For the last hour or so, his body had decided to alternate between heat waves and ice cold chills. It was annoying the shit out of him.

Skeet entered the room and crossed over, coming to an sudden hold in front of him.

“Damn boy, you look like death himself.”

“Uhm… nice to see you too Skeet.”

The older man waved his hands in apology: “Yeah sorry, but you really do. And you sound horrible too. You should be home in bed and not here working.”

Cole sighed: “Bullshit. Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Lili said so too?”

Skeets unhesitated assumption that it could have only been Lili that had told him to stay home made Cole smile.

“I’m good. You know how important this scene is. I’ll get through it.”

“If you say so” Skeet shrugged.

Nonetheless Cole noticed the older man kept hovering around him for the rest of the day. He appreciated the concern, but during filming he started to feel better and by the end, his headache had almost faded.

The moment he sat down though to wait around for Lili after he’d changed from costume into normal cloths, it hit him like a ton of bricks. All at once. The headache came back, he started to shiver and suddenly felt weak. Fuck.

By the time Lili finished and came to look for him, he’d spread out on the sofa, one half of his body covered by a blanket as he alternated between shivering and being sweating like on a 40 degrees L.A. Summer day.

She sat down next to him, her expression between worry and tenderness, and stroked his stubborn front lock from his forehead.

“Told you so, huh?” he mumbled.

She smiled softly. “Yeah, told you so. But now let’s get you home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	29. Moody

He knew better than to push her when she was already in a bad mood. And damn, was she in a bad mood. The moment she’d entered the apartment and slammed the door behind her he had known to better keep his mouth shut for tonight.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t control what he said, but he wasn’t to confident if the sarcasm that had become so natural during the last few years wouldn’t just spill out. Out of habit. It had happened more than once, and he’d rather not risk it happen again. It was everything but a pleasuring experience.

So, he stayed right were he was, right in front of his computer and kept editing pictures. Giving her space was probably the best idea. He heard her make her way through the apartment, from the entrance to the bedroom and finally to the bathroom, slamming closet doors, drawers and other doors shut on her way. Whatever it was that had upset her so much it must have been major.

When the bathroom door slammed shut behind her, he leaned back in his chair, wrecking his brain about what the hell could have happened that had upset her so much. When he’d left set a few hours ago she had been in a rather good mood, trading banter with Cami and Casey. So, during the day nothing out of the ordinary had happened. At least nothing he could recall. It must have happened during the last four hours than.

He closed photoshop and grabbed for his phone. Maybe a little research would be helpfull with this.

Cole: Hey Case, did something happen on set?

Casey: Why?

Cole: There is a lot of door slamming over here. Just wanted to check before I say something stupid and get myself in trouble.

Casey: Thoughtful, Sprouse.

Cole: Always with that surprised undertone.

Casey: Well, there is nothing I recall, sorry. Good luck though.

Cole: Okay, nonetheless thanks.

Cole sighed and tossed the phone on the table again. So, it hadn’t happened on set. Either it was something from back home that bugged her, or something had happened on her way here from set. But what was it?

While he sat there, his arms crossed over his chest and wrecking his brain about what the fuck could have happened, the bathroom door slammed shut again, and he heard her coming towards the living room.

Okay, whatever this was, he needed to get to the root of it.

As she entered the room he could see the anger on her face, while she dropped on the couch and grabbed a magazine. Maybe he didn’t want to get to the root of it after all.

“Don’t be a fucking coward, Cole.” he scolded himself. “You can at least try.”

“Lils?” he said, cautiously.

“What?” she snapped.

“Wo.” he rose his arms in defense and bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from uttering something stupid along the lines: “Someone is in a bad mood.” Pointing out the obvious wouldn’t be helpful either.

Instead he said: “Wanna talk about it?”

“No!” she lowered the magazine. “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. Fuck.”

She leaned her head back against the couch, tossing the magazine to the other end of the room.

“Okay.” he murmured. “Something clearly happened. Come on babe, tell me. Do I have to beat someone up?”

Lili lifted her head again, looked at him for a second and then cracked up.

“Now that’s better.” he thought.

“Seriously Cole. Not that I think you couldn’t beat up someone, after the story Dylan told…”

He made a face at that, which made her giggle again.

“… but what you just said is so not you.”

Cole shrugged: “I can only offer it. I mean I could try talking them into the ground, but I’m afraid that won’t lead us anywhere.”

She shook her head in amusement.

“I’m sorry. It’s just people are assholes.”

He leaned forward in his seat. “What kind of assholes?”

“Catcalling assholes.” she mumbled and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Excuse me? Sounds like I DO, have to beat someone up.”

She shook her head and shifted so she could tug her feet under herself.

“Seriously, there is no need. They were just a bunch of drunk assholes.”

“That doesn’t excuse them from being fucking pricks.”

“I know, I know. That is why I got so angry about it. And probably about the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it.” she sighed.

Cole stood up and sat down next to her.

“You should have kicked their asses babe.”

He slung an arm around her and buried his face in her neck.

“Me against 4 grown ass men?”

“Tss, you would have just needed to slap the shit out of one of them and the other ones would have started running left and right, trust me.”

“Now that I think about it… that might have been a possibility. I would have to slam less doors after and I’m maybe able to slap the shit out of someone”

“You are SO able to do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	30. Dylan

“Shit!”

The mattress moved heavily as Cole jumped out of bed, releasing a river of swears while he flung open the wardrobe doors and grabbed the first shirt and jeans he could reach.

Lili sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes: “What’s wrong?”

Cole pointed at the alarm clock: “I’m so fucking late.”

She looked over. 9 a.m. His call time was 9:45. The location he was supposed to be filming with all the Serpents was about 15 minutes out of town. Which meant he had about 30 minutes left. He was really fucking late. She had a free day, the first one in what felt like months.

“How did we not set the alarm?” Lili mumbled, swinging her legs out of bed, while grabbing a hair tie from the nightstand and tying her hair up into a messy bun. She saw Cole stop in his movements through the room for a second, a smirk appearing on his face.

“Save it Sprouse and go get a shower. I’ll make some breakfast.” she said, while rolling her eyes and getting up.

He chuckled and disappeared into the bathroom. Lili shook her head a little. Sometimes she really wondered how he was able to switch from “grown-ass-man” to “ridiculously-laughing-at-the-most-childish-shit-pre-teen” in all of three seconds.

A few minutes later, she was searching through their notoriously understocked fridge – “seriously, we need to do something about that when we come back for next season” she thought - and hitting buttons on the very oversized coffee machine – “It’s literally just one person, drinking pitch black coffee, why do we need a machine with three thousand functions?” – when Cole’s phone started to buzz on the kitchen counter.

“Babe, someone is calling you.” she yelled.

“Who?” she heard the bathroom door slam shut and Cole hurrying across the corridor, back into the bedroom.

She gazed at the screen.

“Dylan. And it’s actually a facetime call.”

“Can you take it and ask him what he wants? I’ll call him back later.”

“Sure.”

She grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter and accepted the call.

“Hi Dylan.” she said, waving at the screen.

“Hi Lils.” Dylan said. “Where’s my baby brother?”

“Currently stumbling over his own feet because he is late for work.”

Dylan laughed out loud: “That sounds a lot like him.”

“You need something specific?”

Dylan shook his head. “Not really, just a little bored and thought I was going to annoy my little brother a bit. But you might be better company actually.”

“I heard that.” Cole said, suddenly entering the kitchen, half running, pulling a black hoody over his head.

“Babe?”

“Huh?”

“You are wearing your hoody inside out.” she said, while putting spread cheese on some bagels.

“For fucks sake.” he breathed out, pulled the hoody back over his head again, turned it around, put it back on and grabbed the steaming mug she’d placed next to the coffee machine.

“Take care it’s still…” Lili yelled after him, when he left the kitchen again.

“Ouch… shit.”

“… hot.” she rolled her eyes and turned towards the phone, that was now propped up at kitchen counter.

“Has he always been like that?” she asked.

“Yeah, mostly.” Dylan, who seemed fairly amused, answered.

“I can’t believe you actually exactly knew he was going to burn his mouth and warned him.”

Lili shrugged: “He always does when he is late. The funniest thing is him trying to drive and drink coffee at the same time. I think I never laughed as much as that morning we almost missed our flight back to L.A.”

“And now imagine him doing that with flying, long and blond hair in New York traffic.”

The mental image made Lili giggle. “How many New York taxis drivers received death threats that day?”

“Probably all of them.” Dylan chuckled.

“I’m getting roasted here, aren’t I?” Cole, now fully clothed and ready to leave asked, entering the kitchen and looking around. “Where are my…?”

Lili held up his keys and threw them towards him. “Here.”

“God, you are an actual angel, do you know that?”

“Yeah, but I’m fine with you saying it again.”

Cole strode over to give her a lingering good-bye-kiss. They broke apart when Dylan cleared his throat behind them.

“I’m still here you know? And weren’t you late, Romeo?”

Cole gazed at the clock on the wall.

“Shit yeah. See you tonight, babe. I’ll call you later Dyl okay?”

“Yeah. Sure, see you later.” Dylan answered.

“Bye babe.” Lili got on her tiptoes, kissed Cole’s cheek, he grabbed one of the bagels and hurried out off the kitchen.

Lili looked after him for a second, until the front door closed, sighed a little and turned around again.

“You know, I’ve never seen him like this.” Dylan said, after a little pause.

Lili winced, she’d almost forgotten he was still there.

“What do you mean?”

“So… I don’t know… loved up… genuinely happy. You are really good for him Lils.”

She felt a blush creep up her neck. “Thank you, Dylan. That means a lot.”

“Just stating facts.” he shrugged. “Hold on, wait a minute…” he added. “If I’m still talking to you and I called him…”

“Shit, the phone.” Lili groaned, the moment the front door flung open and Cole ran in again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	31. 2.14

“This episode is going to be the end of me.” Cole mumbled, rereading the line he was trying to memorize.

Lili scoffed. “Oh come, the couch scene in 2.12. was way more suggestive than…” she waved at her own script. “whatever this is.”

Cole raised his eyebrow at her. “Believe it or not, but that is not my problem here. I’m afraid we will have to shoot all these scenes for like 2000 times because I’m going to laugh my head off. Like… all the time. And the worst about it is that its such immature shit to laugh about. I mean: squeaking bed feathers, are you kidding me?”

Lili shifted on the couch, stretching out her legs and placing them on his lap. His hand almost automatically went up to lay down on them and tracing lazy circles on her ankle.

“I mean, I’m certain we are going to get some very good bloopers out of it.” she grinned.

“Some? Babe, we will be able to put a whole blooper reel together just from this one. And I’m sorry, but that wig…”

“Yeah, I know. Its horrendous. I’m really looking forward to you trying to make it look like Jug is into it.”

“I suppose the rest of the outfit will help.”

She rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him. He blocked it with ease.

“You couldn’t save that, could you?”

“Nope. Not really.”

Lili shook her head at him, smiling involuntarily. She knew that he was right.

Reading the script, she had stumbled at, at least 3 moments she was sure she wouldn’t be able to stop laughing. Especially when Cole was sitting opposite her. And if he started to laugh too. His laugh always made her crack up, no matter how ridiculous the situation was.

And it made her crack up this time too.

She had just mumbled: “Okay.” and they were smiling at each other, when the squeaking from the other side of the wall started. They both knew very well, that it was just some crew member hopping up and down on a squeaky mattress the production had acquired somewhere, but the ridiculousness of the situation and their conversation from a few days ealier did not help in holding back the laughter threatening to spill out of them. Neither was their direct eye contact. Cole bit down on his cheek and tried counting down to ten, while he waited for Lili to say her line, but nonetheless he burst out into laughter and Lili couldn’t help but laugh along.

“Cut.” the director yelled and they both turned around, still giggling but shooting him an apologetic look.

“We’re sorry, it’s just…” Lili started, but the director waved his hand at her.

“Don’t worry, if it makes you guys laugh, the audience will too. Let’s try this again.”

This time, they got through with it, Cole with a maybe just too goofy smile on his face and Lili sporting the most adorable cringe he’d ever seen at the end.

“One down, one more to go.” she said as they got up.

“Two for me.” he grumbled. “You don’t have to use the ship names.”

Later…

The hot tub scene was especially one thing: cold. Just the thought of having to get up again and having to deliver Jughead’s little speech made Cole shiver. Lili leaned over to him and mumbled:

“You think we can get over with this soon?”

“If I ever get over the monumental cringe of having to use those ship names, yeah.”

“You better. I’m freezing to death here. And if I have to take one more sip than necessary of these margaritas I might just throw them into the lake.”

“They are disgusting, that’s true.”

A few minutes later, everything was set up and the director yelled: “Action.”

Everyone delivered their lines and Cole tried his best not to start shivering as he got up. Why did it have to be so fucking cold?

He went on with Jughead’s little speech, ignoring the secondhand embarrassment when mentioning the ship names and Cami stood up to stride over for the V*ghead kiss. By now he was so deep into Jughead’s mindset, that he felt his facial expression slide into shock as she came closer.

This time Cami laughed.

“What the heck was that face Cole?” she asked.

He lifted his arms in defense: “I’m sorry, the Jughead inside me was not prepared for this.”

A few hours later

Cole leaned back onto the head of the bed that had been set up in the guest room set. They had just filmed Betty closing the door to the bathroom and Jughead hearing about Veronica and Betty kissing and now there was only one last scene left. And that was Betty seducing Jughead.

The make-up artist had rushed Lili into the bathroom, where she was changing and they where putting the wig on her. While (like almost everyone) he found the wig to be horrendous – “srsly, when are we getting rid of this thing?” was the first thing he had asked Roberto as soon as they had gotten the script – the rest of the outfit wouldn’t be… especially hard to look at. He hadn’t seen it live, just on screen in 1x03, but then Lili could have worn a potato sack and she’d look hot to him. There was no denying that fact, although he hated himself just a little for these caveman instincts that came to the surface sometimes.

The make-up artist hurried out of the bathroom and yelled: “We all set here, lets go.”

“Okay.” the director clapped his hands. “Let’s get this over with and then we’ll call it a night. Action.”

The bathroom door slid open and he felt his jaw drop just a little. He had been right. The wig was ridiculous, and he wanted nothing more than to just push it off her head, but the rest of the outfit was… helpful to make it look like Jug was into it. He knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it.

“Cole?” he heard and realized right that moment that he had missed his cue.

Fuck.

“I’m sorry. I seriously forgot my line for a second.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	32. Some day

“Cole, you know you can move?” Lili giggled, looking over at him. 

He was sitting in one of the armchairs of the Cooper House, holding one of the babies that had been casted as the Blossom twins. They had agreed to watch over the two while their mom’s grabbed lunch from craft services. But ever since they had started filming the scene, he had barely moved, and she was sure that he was holding his breath since the little girl had fallen asleep while they were waiting for the crew to adjust the lightning. 

He sat up a little, careful not to move to much and trying his best not to wake the baby. 

“I know.” he muttered. “But they are so small and fragile. It’s not like their parents can just get another kid, if I drop this one. For some reason they don’t sell them at Walmart” 

She smiled. “As if. And if you are that tensed, you are increasing the chances of dropping her. Just relax.” 

Suddenly, the baby in his arms stirred, grimaced and let out a shattering scream. Cole’s eyes went wide. The scream triggered the little boy’s one Lili was holding. 

“Shh, shh, it’s okay.” Lili muttered and bobbed him up and down. “It’s alright.” 

She mumbled a while into the little boy’s ear, before he calmed down, then she looked up again. Cole was trying his best to calm the little girl down but wasn’t really succeeding. Her face was beet red by now and she was screaming on the top of her lungs.

He looked up at her, a little helpless. “Okay, seriously, what am I doing wrong here?”

Lili shifted the boy to her hips and got up to sit down next to him. 

“She’s probably hungry or something, their mom’s will be back soon.” 

“And we are going to let her scream until then or?” 

She grinned again and lifted the little boy a little. “Hand her over, I’ll see what I can do.” 

“I seriously don’t know how my parents managed two of us at the same time.” he mumbled and took the little boy to sit on his lap.

Lili cooed over the little girl for a while and unsurprisingly it took her mere minutes to calm her down. When she looked up at Cole again, he looked impressed.

“You are really good at this, you know?” he said. 

She shrugged: “It helps having a lot of cousins that are younger than you. And I made some money from babysitting. Did I never tell you that?”

He shook his head. “No, not really.”

“Huh.” she breathed out but couldn’t help noticing the look on his face. It was somewhere between tenderness and astonishment. She wondered what he was thinking and if it was the same thought that had crossed her mind earlier, but was too reluctant to ask here on set, while they were surrounded by so many people.

Although she knew that they were light years away from it, during the day she had allowed herself to think what it could be like one day. Having kids. With him. It was weird how clearly, she could see it. How she was sure he would make an amazing father one day. It wasn’t an unpleasant thought, just one that seemed so far into the future that is should be blurry, but for her it wasn’t at all. 

She chuckled silently at the thought of a little boy or girl with blond hair, bright green eyes, stubborn and sarcastic beyond their age. If the childhood stories about Cole and Dylan were to be trusted, if her and Cole ever reached that point, raising that kid would be an adventure. Plus, she hadn’t been the most quiet and shy kid either.

“Okay, guys, last one and make it quick, these kids can’t stay on set all day.” the directors voice snapped Lili out of her thoughts. She handed the little girl she had been holding over to her mother, straightened her sweater (somehow, they just kept getting uglier and she really wished that for once Betty could wear something that looked less like someone had stolen it from some 80ish old English lady) and adjusted the ponytail. Then the little girl was handed back to her again and she lifted her head to ask Cole something about the scene, when she caught him staring, a tender smile on his face. 

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing…” he shook his head a little and his smile grew wider. “Just daydreaming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	33. The Jeep

„Hey, can I ask you something?” Lili turned her head towards him, stroking her thumb lightly over Cole’s hand that had settled on her thigh. They were driving home from set on a surprisingly warm Vancouver September evening. The sun was slowly setting behind the large buildings of downtown Vancouver and a thought had just crossed her mind.

“Sure.” he said, his gaze leaving the road for a second. She took a light breath, trying not to giggle about the fact that she was nervous about such a normal question.

“Can I drive us to work tomorrow?”

His hand tensed a little on her thigh as they came to a hold at a red light. He turned his head towards her and crooked his eyebrow.

“Like, driving my Jeep?”

She didn’t know if he was emphasizing the word “my” on purpose or if it just had become a habit. Ever since she’d met him, almost everyone had asked him to let them drive his Jeep. But he was surprisingly stubborn about it. Even for his standards. He just flatly refused to let anyone drive his car. He was almost as protective about it as he was with his cameras.

“Yeah” Lili answered slowly. “I mean you’d have to walk me through, I never really drove stick but… I think I can manage.”

She didn’t know why, but she’d always wanted to drive the Jeep, since their first adventure in Antelope Valley. That car was attached to a lot of memories of their adventures, no matter if they had taken place in the wilds of Vancouver or the wide fields of poppies near L. A. Plus, it was a challenge and she liked challenges.

For a minute he didn’t say anything, then the traffic light jumped to green and to her surprise he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

“Okay.”

Lili’s mouth dropped open a little. “Wait what?”

“I said okay.”

“Just like that? Okay? Cole, I was prepared for a major discussion about this.”

He raised his eyebrow at her again. “Why?”

“Why?! Cole you NEVER let anyone drive your Jeep. Like ever. And a lot of people tried. Skeet, KJ, Debby… I think I haven’t even seen Dylan drive your car.”

“So?”

She couldn’t believe the conversation had really gone that way. That it had been that easy to convince him.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just not used to you backing away from something you’d been so stubborn about, that easy.”

His hand caressed her thigh lightly, as a slight smile appeared on his face.

“You know that its different with you.”

“Different with me?”

They’d reached the parking lot of their building by now and he stopped the car. With an amused expression on his face he turned towards her.

“Yes. And I can’t believe you haven’t caught up on that.”

By now she was utterly confused. She really didn’t get what he meant.

“Okay, I know this sounds incredibly stupid, but: why?”

He sighed, cupped her face with his hand and looked straight into her eyes.

“Lili, I’d trust you with my life. Why the fuck wouldn’t I trust you with my car?”

…

“How the fuck, do you drive this thing?” Lili groaned and rested her head on the steering wheel, after she’d killed the engine for the fifth time.

She heard Cole chuckle and turned half her face towards him.

“You just need to be a little bit more gentle. You’re getting of the clutch to fast.”

Lili threw her hands in the air. “I’ve been driving for almost 4 years, why can’t I do this?”

“Because you’ve always driven automatic, there is a difference. You should have seen me when I started driving this car. My dad almost lost his mind.”

She giggled at the mental image of a 16-year-old Cole, trying to figure out the gear shift, his father next to him trying to calm himself down.

Cole nudged her in the side lovingly.

“You laughing about me?”

Lili shook her head. “No, just at the mental image of you trying to figure out a gear shift.”

He shook his head and smiled.

“Come on, lets try this again, or we’ll be late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	34. 2x21

„Holy shit“ Cole mumbled, as everyone was closing their script and got up to start their day after the table read for 2.21.

Lili looked over at him also still not really sure if what she had just read had been real. “I mean, he’ll survive, but still. That’s going to be hard to shoot.”

She saw him leaning back, crossing his arms in front of his chest: “This phone call is already giving me a headache. It’s so… emotional.”

“You can do emotional.”

“Yeah, but you know what the last one looked like. I just hope this one comes out better.”

Lili raised an eyebrow. “Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad. And I’m pretty sure that the hours you’ll have to spend in a make-up chair to make you look all beaten up will be even worse for you than shooting that phone call.”

“Fuck, I didn’t even think about that.” he groaned and closed his eyes for a second. “Its going to be hours, won’t it?”

She shrugged. “I mean I’ve never done anything like that but judging the time it takes for my stuff and that they’ll surely have to do a lot more to make you look like you just got beaten to death. I’d say about three to four hours.”

“You’re kidding? Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I’m afraid I’m not, babe”

Cole let out a breath and his eyes flicked to the clock on the wall.

“Shit, I have to be at the trailer in 10 minutes.”

“Yeah, I should get going too.” Lili said getting up as well. “I’ll have to scream at Lochlyn in a bit.”

He chuckled and pulled her closer to peck her lips shortly. “See you tonight then.”

…

While she was walking toward the set that housed the Cooper living room, Lili’s thoughts were still caught up with the script they had read merely 30 minutes ago. It made sence for Jughead to try to sacrifice himself for the Serpents, it fed into the whole “Jughead-going-way-to-hard-regarding-his-Southside-legacy”-narrative, - “Shit, I’m starting to sound like Cole” she thought to herself – but nonetheless it would be very challenging to film such an emotional scene. And although she didn’t really want to admit it, the thought of Cole looking like a whole gang had almost just beaten him to death made her a little… uneasy.

“This is ridiculous Lili” she scolded herself. “It’s just a scene and a lot of Make-Up, its not like something is really going to happen to him, calm down.”

After all, this was just part of their job and both of them had always been more than able to keep their own relationship from interfering in their work – okay, granted it made the kissing, flirting and teasing remarks way easier – so why did this particular one seem like she was going to have trouble with it?

“Because you care about him, stupid” a little voice in their head whispered.

She rolled her eyes at that. Of course, she did. More than she might be able to express in words, but again, this was going to be nothing but another scene and a lot of fake blood.

Lili shoved the thought to the back of her head when she reached the Cooper living room.

Now was not the time to think about this.

…

And she’d almost forgotten about it, hadn’t he mentioned it in the car on their way home.

“So, I googled trauma make-up and you were right.” Cole said, while stopping at a red light. “I’ll have to sit in a make-up chair at least 3 hours to get that shit done.”

Lili giggled at the disgusted look on his face. “Oh, come on, it won’t be that bad.”

He scoffed. “It will. And I talked to Mads, that fake blood is hella sticky and it will take another hour to get rid of all this bullshit.”

“And they will have to touch your nose.” Lili said, giggling again when his expression darkened even more.

“Not funny Lils.” he growled, while switching the gearshift and stepping on the gas.

She reached over and started to play with the hair in his neck. He leaned back into her touch a little and she smiled: “You’ll get through it. It’s not the first time Jughead has been beaten up this season.”

“Yeah, but never to such an extent.”

And there it was again, the image of him, looking all roughed up, the uneasy feeling flaring up in her stomach. Her hand stopped its ministrations and dropped to the base of his neck.

He looked over to her for a second, then back to the road again.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

Of course, he caught on to it. He always did.

“Nothing.” Lili said pulling her hand back.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, his way of saying: “Come on Lils, who you are talking to?” without saying anything.

She huffed out a breath and tugged at her sweater.

“It’s ridiculous really. It’s just that the thought of you looking all beaten up makes me… I dunno, a little uneasy. I know it’s just acting and its our job but still. I don’t like the thought of you getting hurt even though its just hypothetically. It’s stupid really. I mean its just your character that gets hurt and my mind is probably making this worse than it is going to be but…”

He gently put his hand on her thigh to stop her rambling.

“It’s not stupid.” he mumbled. “I get that. It’s the same for me.”

…

When the day finally came, Lili couldn’t help but laugh at how easy it all went.

After shooting Hal’s arrest and talking into a phone to nobody, she went back to the make-up trailer to see how Cole’s trauma make-up was coming along.

She bit back a laugh when she saw him slumped back into the make-up chair, clearly already annoyed by having to sit still for such a long time and all the stuff the two guys the production had hired to do the trauma make-up were putting on his face.

“How is it going?” she asked and plopped down into the chair next to him.

Cole just grumbled something along the lines of: “Still 50 minutes left.” and one of the make-up-artist laughed.

“I promise we’ll do our best to keep this as short as possible.”

“’s okay.” Cole mumbled again and waved his hand.

During the next 50 minutes, Lili sat there, watching fascinated how the make-up artists turned Cole’s face into an “all-roughed-up-state” including a swollen eye.

She couldn’t help but be thoroughly impressed.

When they finished she turned her chair towards him, leaning forward to look closer at his face. He tried to smile, but all the fake blood made it almost impossible to move his face.

“How do I look?”

“Shocking” she murmured. “Seriously, they did an amazing job.”

“Well, then let’s go and get through this.” he said, took her hand and pulled her up from her chair.

“Yeah, lets do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	35. Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This goes out to the anon that requested "Cole persuing Lili" as a prompt on tumblr. This is set roughtly around the beginnig of season one when the whole cast lived in the same apartment complex (or at least I read that somewhere). I hope you enjoy it, have a great read!

„Hey Lils“

Lili looked up from the magazine she had been flipping through while waiting for her Make-Up to be done. A flu epidemic had knocked out most of the Make-Up artists so only two were left and Make-Up took way longer than it normally would.

Her eyes connected with his through the mirror and she smiled at him as she got up. God, that smile. It lit up her whole face, but mostly it made her eyes sparkle and it gave him the most giddy feeling. His 16-year-old self would have rolled his eyes at him so hard, they would have probably gotten stuck.

“Cole! You’re back.”

She got up from the chair and hugged him.

“Yeah, came back last night. I wanted to text you, but I was so tired I only had energy to change and fall into bed.”

She sat down again, while he dropped down in the chair next to her.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not like you have to report back to me or something. How was the shoot?” she asked, fixing her gaze at him attentively.

It had always intrigued him. The way she focused her whole attention on the person she was talking too. How she seemed to take in every single word, turning it over in her head, her replies being always thoughtful. It made having a conversation easy, way easier than he was used too.

During the last months, since they had first meet each other, they had developed a rapid friendship, something he’d never experienced. It normally took him a little to warm up to new people, his hesitation based on the suspicion one develops while growing up in the plastic world of Hollywood, where people always wanted something. Sooner or later they always asked for favor. Not Lili though. She was a force of nature, coming into his life when he least expected her to, always honest and never afraid to give it to him straight. If he was being honest, he liked that maybe a little more than he should have.

He told her all about his weekend shoot in L. A. while they were both waiting for Casey and Cami to get finished up, so the Make-Up artists could get started on them. Soon they were both caught up in their own little world, trading banter about which one of them sported the more prominent eyebags.

“Come on Lils, you can’t beat this.” he said, gesturing towards his eyebags. “These are well-crafted by years and years of not sleeping enough. Yours are barely noticeable.”

She leaned forward in her chair while shooting him a look and placing her hand right under her eye: “You should think about getting glasses, seriously. How do you not see my eyebags? They are horrifying.”

“I think you look amazing.” the words had left his mouth before he could stop them. They weren’t just some cheap flattery, he meant them.

She froze for a second, something that might have gone unnoticed to someone that didn’t know her as well as he did by now, then she turned her head towards him.

“I’m literally wearing sweatpants, the oldest shirt I own, my Make-Up isn’t done and my hair is up in the messiest bun I have ever produced.”

“So?” he asked.

“I couldn’t look any more unflattering Cole.”

“Bullshit. You are beautiful, and you should really be more confident about that.” he winked at her when he said that, and she blushed.

“Oh, shut up.” she mumbled.

He was about to give a witty response, when the Make-Up artist interrupted their conversation.

“Let’s get you two fixed up quickly, shall we? KJ is still waiting and his hair is a piece of work lately, so let’s get this over with.”

…

A few hours later, during a shooting break, Cole had sprawled out on the couch of the Blue and Gold set, trying to catch up on some sleep he had lost during the last days. He silently cursed himself for agreeing to work on the weekends. It wasn’t like his sleeping pattern was totally horrible, but bad enough to have left him exhausted by now. He was on the verge of sleep when he heard someone else entering the room, basically tiptoeing in, then a plate was put down and said someone lifted themselves up on one of the tables.

Cole turned around and opened his eyes to see Lili sitting right next to one of those ancient computer screens the production had dug up deep down in some studio basement.

She looked at him apologetically.

“Sorry, did I wake you? I was coming in here to see if the couch was unoccupied and have lunch” she lifted her plate a little at that. “But when I saw you, I figured I’ll just sit down here.”

He shook his head and sat up. “No worries, I wasn’t sleeping. And you can come over here, that desk looks awfully uncomfortable.”

She smiled at him, somehow managed to jump off the table gracefully and sauntered over to sit down next to him.

“Tired?” she asked, while taking a folk full of pasta.

He nodded. “Yeah, but its okay, I get off early tonight. I think I’ll just get some take out on my way home and then crash.”

“Ugh that sounds amazing. I’ll have to stay until 11 p. m. at least, although all I want is to get some Chipotle and sleep.”

“Poor you.” Cole answered and casually slung his arms around her to give her half a side hug. She didn’t pull back, just tilted her head to look at him defiantly.

“Yeah, I can almost hear how much you are sorry for me”

“I really am. I swear I’ll send you some of my lazy comfort as soon as I’m all cozy on my couch.”

Lili gave him a playful shove. “You are an idiot sometimes, you know that?”

“Well, someone’s gotta be.” 

...

It was on his way home that he got the idea. At first, he thought it was stupid, but then he decided it’s what friends are for, made a U-turn and stopped the car in front of the Chipotle he just passed by.

“Its’s funny.” he thought. “The Chipotle is only two blocks away from our apartment building”

He’d never realized that before, but no wonder Lili was paying it frequent visits.

A little later, when he left the Chipotle the supermarket on the other side of the street caught his eye. He stopped for a second, then shrugged his shoulders. Why not?

...

He arrived back on set some 30 minutes later, fiercely hoping that the food he was carrying hadn’t gone cold. In the end he found Lili in the Make-Up trailer, waiting for her clean up.

He chuckled to himself at the way everything came full circle today.

When he entered, she looked over at him, quirking her eyebrows: “Cole? I thought you were already off for today?”

“Well, I passed the Chipotle near the apartment building and you said you were craving that so…” he held up the takeout bag.

“YOU BROUGHT CHIPOTLE?” she jumped up, bouncing up and down on the spot, taking a glance into the bag. “Wait is that…?” she reached into the back and pulled out a bottle: “You brought Mountain Dew too?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


	36. New Orleans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This goes out to the nonnie who requested "Lili surprising Cole in Nola."

It was warm. Freakishly so. And as if that wasn’t enough, the air conditioning on set had decided to break. So right now, everyone was just sitting around, fanning themselves with makeshift fans or pressing cold water bottles to their foreheads. Even leaving the building wasn’t an option because the temperature difference was a whopping 2 degrees and it did NOTHING to cool off an overheated body. Cole’s mood was rapidly dropping towards zero. The day had started out great, with them getting through the scheduled scenes rather fast, even with a few one takes here and there. But then the fucking air conditioning had decided to act up and after 30 minutes of trying to power through there had been a collective agreement that it wouldn’t do any good for the movie if they kept filming while sweating their asses off. Never mind that they had a rather narrow range of clothing as their characters spent 99 % of their time in a hospital. 

He sat down in a chair next to the cooler that inhabited the water bottles and grabbed one to swap it with the one he had been pressing to his face for the last 30 minutes.

“I really hope they fix that shit soon.” Haley, who was sitting opposite him, her feet propped up on the chair next to her, said. “It’s like a 100 degrees, in here.” 

Cole just nodded in agreement. This disgusting heat was messing with his brain and to be honest considering the mood he was in, he’d better keep his mouth shut. Haley grabbed for her phone and rolled her eyes.

“I hate him.” she grumbled.

“Who?” Cole asked, raising an eyebrow. He had known Haley for like a week, but he was thoroughly convinced that she wasn't able to dislike, let alone hate someone.

“Brett. My fiancée.” she huffed.

“I doubt that.”

She rolled her eyes again. “Okay, maybe I don’t hate him, but he just sent me the temperature in L. A. and it’s 18 degrees.”

“Okay, well maybe you don’t have to be as drastic as hating him for that, but the silent treatment is very effective.” 

Haley crooked an eyebrow. “Really? Does your girlfriend use it a lot?” 

“No, but that’s because she is an actual angel and somehow endures me and my weirdness.”

“An actual angle huh?” a voice behind them said. 

Cole nearly fell of his chair in surprise. Did he really hear her voice or was the heat just getting to him? He swiveled around in his chair, blinking twice, just in case he was seeing things. But no, she was really standing there. 

“Lili” he jumped up from his chair and wanted to hug her but stopped a few inches in front of her. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m all sweaty. You probably don’t want that.” 

She scoffed. “As if I cared.” 

With that she took a step, closed the gap between them and kissed him. Everything went quiet for a second and Cole felt his lips turn up into a smile. It had been barely two days since he’d seen her, but damn, he’d already missed this. Her lips on his, her arms coming up to loop around his neck. 

They pulled away a few lingering moments later and he smiled at her. 

“How did you get here? And when?” 

She laughed. “I conspired with Justin. Well, at least to get on set. The rest was completely me missing you and wanting to spend some time with you.” 

He chuckled and pecked her lips again. 

They turned around towards the table where Haley had already gotten up, almost bouncing towards them. 

“Hi, I’m Haley. It’s so good to finally meet you Lili” she said cheerfully and enveloped Lili in a rather suffocating hug. Lili froze for a moment surprised by Haley’s immediate warmth and openness, but then returned the hug. 

“It’s great to meet you too Haley.” she responded and then looked around in the room. “Is there a reason its like a 100 degrees in here?” 

“Yeah, the air conditioning broke like 2 hours ago” Cole said, waving his hand lazily towards the funnel above them. 

“But we have makeshift paper fans” Haley said and handed one over to Lili.

…

It was almost 10 p. m. when they were finally finished for the day. By now, everyone was far too tired to do anything, so they grabbed some take out, ordered an Uber and made their way back to the apartment building that housed the sublets the production had rented for the actors. Haley wished them a good night as she entered hers on the second floor and they climbed up the remaining stairs to the third floor. 

Lili looked around when they stepped inside, a small but gentle smile on her lips. 

“It’s cute” she said.

“It does its job.” Cole shrugged while he put down her luggage. “It’s not like I’m here a lot anyway. Basically, just to sleep.” 

She laughed and followed him to the kitchen, where they unpacked the take out and then collapsed down on the couch, devouring the food and leaving the containers at the small coffee table, because frankly, they were both to lazy to get up again.

It didn’t take long for sleep to take over both of them, the low mummer of some Netflix Original they just put on for the heck of it, lulling them in. It almost felt like after a long day on set in Vancouver.

“Cole?” Lili mumbled, stifling a yawn.

“Mhm?” he murmured, his face buried into her hair.

“I missed this.” 

“Me too. So, fucking much.”

…

Cole woke due to the sunlight creeping into the living room the next morning. He blinked against the brightness, then closed his eyes again. Whatever time it was, it was definitely too early and except for his stiff neck, he felt way to warm and comfortable to move an inch. Shooting would only start later in the day and they were scheduled for a night shoot, so it was probably a good idea to get as much sleep as he could. 

But just when he was about to doze off again, he felt Lili stir awake next to him. He opened his eyes and saw her stretching her arms over her head, as sleepy smile on her face.

“Morning.” she muttered.

“Morning.” he responded, gently stroking her ribcage with his thumb. 

“What time is it?” she asked, blinking against the sunlight and then turning her neck left and right to make it crack. 

Cole shrugged and shifted a little to grab his phone from the head rest above them. 

“9.” he mumbled. “Damn its later than I thought. Want to go for breakfast?”

“Sounds good” Lili mumbled and buried her face into his chest. “Although I’d rather stay here with you all day.” 

“Believe me. Me too.” 

...

The weekend flew buy and before they knew it, it was Memorial Day. They had opted to drive outside New Orleans, into the swamp lands. After wandering around for a while they'd sat down by a little water body, Cole leaning against a tree, Lili leaning against him. 

"I don't want you to leave tomorrow already." Cole huffed, pulling her even closer.

"I don't want to leave either, but you know... work and shit." 

He chuckled. "Yeah, but... It's just that its going to be an eternity until I see you again afterwards." 

"Barley a month." 

"An eternity. Like I said."


	37. Home

It’s been three eternal weeks. Three weeks of 14-hour-work-days, many sleepless nights and not remotely enough food. And three weeks without her. Which was probably why these three weeks had seemed so eternal.

He dropped down in his seat on the plane back to L.A. barley able to keep his eyes open after the fiftieth nightshoot.

Cole felt exhausted. It was a good kind of exhaustion though. The exhaustion you feel after having completed a challenging task, after having reached a goal you’d set yourself for years. Plus he was finally getting back to L.A. Getting back to her.

They’d been FaceTiming and and texting almost relentlessly, but that didn’t change the fact that they had been thousands of miles apart and that the only thing he wanted to do now was wrapping her up in his arms, kiss her, take a 72-hour-nap and eat all the pizza L.A. had to offer.

Leaning back in his seat, he plugged his earphones in and closed his eyes. A four hour flight. That was all that separated him from seeing her again.

...

He woke up four hours later, when a flight attendant touched his shoulder to tell him to get his seat belt back on because they’d be landing soon.

Rubbing his eyes, Cole glanced out the window where the shapes of L.A. where already forming on the horizon.

He smiled to himself. No matter how much time he spent somewhere else, nothing would ever come close to this. Well, okay, New York maybe. But Los Angeles was home, it was were millions of memories had been created.

Camping trips into the Californian wild with friends. Endless nights of video games with Dylan. Spaghetti dinners. Monsters on luch bags. The desicion to say: “Fuck it”, move to the other side of the country and get away from everything. Coming back. Auditioning for Riverdale. Her.

...

He barley got impacient. But when the plane touched down at LAX he had to keep himself from jumping up, grabbing his luggage and just barging outside without lookig left or right.

He knew she would be there. It was fairly late and he’d taken this flight on purpose, so the airport would be mostly deserted. He was in no mood for pictures or anything therelike. The only thing he wanted was to see her, go home, curl up next to her in bed and not leave until roughly 72 hours later.

The luggage claim almost drove him nuts. When the fuck did all this start to take so long? He was already among the last few people, fearing that his suitcase would never show up or had taken an accidental trip to some exotic destination, when it finally appeared. He grabbed it with a relived sigh. Only a few minutes, only a few steps left.

...

She caught his eye the moment he stepped out into the arrivals lounge. With her pink hat and the big pair of sunglasses she had managed to blend in with the crowd, almost as if she wasn’t some kind of half goddess that left him speechless on the regular when she did as much as smile.

Of course she’d disagree with that statement but for him it was the truth and nothing but that.

She smiled brightly when she saw him and he barley kept himself from running towards her like in one of those cheesy romcons. There was no need to draw more attention than necessary to themselves.

But when he finally arrived infront of her, he couldn’t help it. He swept her up in a tight hug, almost lifting her of the floor. She hugged him back just as much, a slight giggle escaping from her lips, as he kissed her cheek first and then continued on to her lips. He felt like he was breathing a little easier the moment his lips found hers, as if all the exhaustion lifted from his shoulders for a second.

“Fuck, I missed you Lili.” he mumbled, when they pulled back not letting his arm slip away from around her waist.

She smiled again and kissed his cheek lightly.

“I’ve missed you too. And now come on, let’s get the hell out of here.”

...

When they got to her apartment and he saw all the candy and pizza she’d gotten he was considering to go just full on Jughead for a moment and wulf all of it down within one second.

They’d joked about it during the previous weeks, that as soon as he came back they would eat themselves through all the candy, pizza and ramen L.A. had to offer, but he hadn’t expected her to really follow through with it.

For a moment he just stood there, staring at the pizza boxes on her kitchen counter until she wrapped her arms around him from behind.

”I didn’t get ramen, but Hart asked if we want to go have dinner with him and Sunni tomorrow at that Japanese place, so I figured we’ll get it there.”

”Fuck the ramen.” he mumbled as he turned around. “This is perfection. You are perfection.”

She blushed a little. “Nah. I just want you to get those pounds you lost back in time for season three. It’s all for the aesthetic.”

Cole burst out laughing at that, sweeping her up in a hug again.”God, I love you so fkn much, you have no idea.”

She nestled her face into his neck, and while her arms came around his torso she responded: “I guess I might know.”


	38. Warner Bros and pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This goes out the lovely lifesans! Its super short, I'm sorry.

It had been a very, very long week. The night shoots seemed to never end. There was never enough sleep and most of the scenes they had shot hadn’t been too easy either.

And as if all of that hadn’t been enough, Comic Con weekend was right around the corner. Interview marathons, after parties, panels, autograph signings. Just the thought of it all sounded exhausting to Cole. Somehow these conventions had been way more fun when he’d been there as a fan and had managed to (at least partly) blend in with the crowd.

He leaned back in his seat, checking his phone one last time before lift-off and decided that it was probably the best to catch up on sleep now. Grabbing for his bag, he hesitated for a second. His eyes wandered over to KJ and Casey, who were sitting a few rows in front of him. He knew that they would never let him hear the end of it, if he really pulled out that sleeping mask.

…

It had been Lili’s idea.

“Come on babe, I swear it works.”

“Uhu, yeah and it also makes me look like a middle aged, upper-class housewife that sleeps in silk pajamas and wears 5000 $ pearls.”

She chuckled at that.

“That is awfully judging Cole. At least give it a try. I mean, have I ever suggested something that didn’t work.”

Cole sighed and put his coffee mug down. An unexpectedly pleasant experience with a three-berry-face mask came to his mind and he knew that she was still relinquishing about the fact that his skin had cleared up like nothing, after she made him try it.

“That’s an argument I guess.” he grumbled, still not fully convinced.

Lili beamed. “So, you going to try it?”

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, I’ll try it. Let’s just hope no one ever takes a picture of me with that thing on.”

…

Of course, they took a picture. And of course, they posted it immediately.

But to his surprise Cole found that he didn’t care.

That happened a lot lately. Things that would have driven him crazy or made him mad only a few years ago, didn’t bother him in the slightest now. Life was good. He had a job he loved, he had managed to turn his passion into a job too and the world seemed so much brighter than it had been only a few years ago.

And of course, then there was her. With her bright laugh, the shining green eyes and the glowing blond hair. Maybe she was the reason everything seemed so much friendlier and brighter all over sudden. No, scratch that. She was.

…

But even the brightest ray of sunshine can’t glow all day long. He noticed it in the way her shoulders slumped back when she sat down on the white couch at the Warner Bro’s party, in the way her gaze became less focused, her smile lost a little bit of its glow.

She was exhausted.

She looked amazing with her polka dotted dress and the straightened hair and she tried to hide it, but she was exhausted. He wasn’t surprised though. Her week had been even more exhausting than his, she had worked the whole night before and quite frankly he didn’t know how she managed to still be that radiant and perfect.

He put his empty glass down on the bar, where he had been talking to Casey and sauntered over to her.

After last year they were treating more carefully, trying not to draw more attention to themselves than was strictly necessary.

So, he casually dropped down next to her and leaned over to whisper into her ear: “Are you tired?”

Lili turned towards him, a soft smile on her face. “How come you always know?”

He shrugged. “I know you. How about back to the hotel and pizza?”

“Sounds perfect.”

…

An hour later they fell onto their hotel bed, empty pizza cartoon on the night stand.

“Let’s never move again.” Lili mumbled, and turned towards him.

“I think you’ve picked the wrong weekend for that baby. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of moving.”

"It's going to be nerve wrecking, right?"

"Probably yeah. But we've been through it twice now, I think we'll manage. When do you have to be up for hair and MakeUp?"

"Way to early." she responded, nustling her face into his neck. "God, I sound like some spoiled brad. I swear I'm really thankful for all this. The show, the love people give us, the friendships that came out if this, you..."

That last word sent a little thrill through Cole. It just never got old.

"But its all just so. fucking. exhausting."

"Lils, hey. Just because faith drew you a good run it doesn't mean that you have to be all smiley and sunshine all the time. That would be wrong. It would be fake. And you are the fartest from fake I've seen in my life. You are a human being and all of us have good and bad days. You can't be on all the time. And I know you know that."

"I do. Doesn't make me feel less guilty though. I just don't.. There are so many people out there who are off way worse and they are never complaining."

"Yes, but you are you and if you feel the need to complain, you complain, its that simple. It's not good to keep that shit in baby. And the only one that can hear you here is just little old me, so shoot away."

He let his voice sound like he was announcing some grand price on a game show when he uttered the last three words and she laughed at that, her warm breath tickling his skin. "You are amazing, you know that?"

"I have a good day every once in a while."


	39. Lucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspried by Lili making as all flail with her Instagramstory.

She can’t help it. It’s been two years since they first kissed, almost three since they meet, 10+ since he first popped up on her television screen (not that the thought of meeting that boy running around a hotel on Disney Channel ever crossed her mind back then. Let alone the one of falling in love with him.) but occasionally she just has to stare at him.

Especially right now, when he steps into their bedroom, just after having showered, his hair still damp and falling into his eyes his upper body bare. Her eyes wander from his face, over his arms and then down to his stomach. It’s moments like this when she feels like the luckiest bitch alive, knowing that only she gets to touch him, kiss him, cuddle up to him. 

He smirks when he notices her staring, his expression becoming half amused, half flustered. She also loves that she can do that: make the ever confident Cole Sprouse become flustered. 

“Did I grow horns or something?” he asks, while putting his phone on the night stand.

She lets out a breathy laugh and shakes her head: “No. You just.. you look very good tonight.” 

“It’s just the dim lighting.” he says, gesticulating to the bedside lamp, while he drops down on the bed next to her.

She rolls her eyes and wacks him with a pillow: “Can’t you for ONCE take a compliment Sprouse?” 

He chuckles and shakes his head lightly, while pulling her closer. 

“You gotta admit that you are a little biased in that regard.” 

She turns her head up to look at him, brows creased together and he swears he has never seen anything more adorable. 

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. You’re ridiculously hot and I’m not the only one with that opinion. Plus, I can prove it.” 

With that she grabs her phone again, searching for that one specific picture and puts it up on her Instagram stories. He raises an eyebrow at her and she smiles mischievously.

“Go look.” she says and he grabs his phone, although a little reluctantly, and opens her Stories. 

He groans in protest and rolls his eyes when he sees what she did.

“Lili, you can’t rile all these poor people up so late.” 

“I can if it proves my point.”

He looks at her for a while, somewhat amused again, then he almost lounges himself at her, pinning her to the mattress, tickling her mercilessly. Her phone drops from her hand and onto the ground and she erupts into a fit of giggles, trying to wiggle out of his touch, but he is stronger and before she knows it, his hands have come up to frame her face and he is kissing her, smiling against her mouth.

“God, I love you so fkn much Lili Reinhart.” he mumbles when he pulls back, just a fraction. She can see it in his eyes, can see the admiration and love he has for her and again can’t help but feel like the luckiest person to walk this planet.


	40. Thanksgiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all know what this is inspired by.

She really shouldn’t be surprised. It’s him after all. He has always been so easy to talk to. He has an opinion on everything and can talk about literally any topic.

(Maybe not sports. He doesn’t do sports. Although she wouldn't be surprised if, if put to the test, he'd whip out some Baseball statistics from the 1950's he'd read about years ago)

But as she watches him arrive at her home, blending in like he has always been there, like he has been a part of her family for decades, she can’t help but marvel at his ability to chalk up a conversation. The way he makes her aunt laugh, trades anecdotes about college life with her sister, jokes with her dad and makes her mom blush a little with compliments about food and the interior design of the house, makes her heart sing.

She also likes to see him relaxed, carefree, like nothing in the world can disturb him. Both of them have been working so much lately, the words "free” and “time" have started to sound a little foreign. But as soon as they slide into the backseat of her mom's car, she can see the same pressure that she feels falling of her shoulders, also lifting from his.

It feels incredibly domestic and comfortable to have him home with her. To do normal things for once. Sleeping in, stuffing their faces with food, walking the dogs. It’s incredibly soothing and relaxing. There are people that recognize them of course and it feels a little strange to be recognized on the streets she had been walking for years in complete anonymitiy. But she is kind of getting used to it. He has been for years now. The domestic and familiar rythm of her home makes it easier though. She loves her work, she loves their day to day up in Vancouver. But this is something special. And it makes her over the moon happy. It makes her forget how stressful their life tends to be. How many eyes are on them.

It makes her loop her arms around him outside a restaurant and kiss him without one single thought about who might be watching. It makes her heart flutter even more than usual when he smirks at her from his place at the kitchen counter, coffee cup in one hand, part of the dough he stole in the other, while she is baking with her goddaughter. She knows that maybe its a little rude to be so caught up in each other when people are around, but she can't help it. Being with him makes her do things, she'd considered increidibly cheesy just a little while ago. Like taking a billion pictures of him with the dogs, so many that he starts roasting her about it.

“You are going to put me out of work Lils” he laughs and jokingly lifts his hands to cover his face.

A part of her wants it all to never end.

But she knows that eventually they’ll have to go back to their day by day, so she decides to make the most of it. To enjoy every second as much as she can. Even the most mundane things.

Just like right now.

It’s late on Thanksgiving eve, most of her extended family has left and the rest of them are lounging on the couch, an episode of Friends murmuring from the television. She is too tired to really pay attention though. Snuggled up under a large blanket, her head on the crook between his arm and his shoulder, his hand lazily trailing up and down her arm, her eyelids and limbs are growing heavier with every passing second.

She wants to go to bed, but the way upstairs is all too far right now. She’d be totally okay with spending the night on the couch, just right here in his arms, sore neck in the morning be damned. But of course, like always, he seems to be able read her mind. His lips gently touch her forehead and he murmurs, so quietly only she can hear:

“You wanna go to sleep, babe?”

She just nods, her eyes still closed, not really moving though. He chuckles and sits up, his hand on her back, gently pushing her up with him.

“Come on, the way upstairs is not as far as it seems right now.” its barley a whisper in her ear, a soft encouragement while he is getting on his feet.

“I’m pretty sure I know that better than you.” she yawns and lets him pull her up by the hand.

Her mom looks up from the other end of the couch, where she’d been reading a book, smiling at them.

“You guys going to bed?”

“Yeah” Lili answers. “Gotta take advantage of every hour of sleep I can get. Plus, for some reason Cole managed to sleep eight consecutive hours last night, we gotta find out what prompted that miracle.”

“I still claim it’s the sheets. They are legit the softest sheets I’ve ever slept on.” he says and she knows by the tone of his voice that he means it.

Her mom rolls her eyes, but Lili can see that she is a little flattered.

“For some reason I doubt that. Good night you two.”

“Good night.”

"Night, mom."

He takes her hand and pulls her up the stairs. It makes her wake up a little and when they reach the top, she pulls him back towards her, stands on her tiptoes and kisses him. It takes him by surprise, just like she had intended to and he stumbles backwards a little until his hands find purchase on her hips. He smiles into the kiss once he has caught himself and when she pulls back, he is full on grinning.

“What was that for?”

“Just for you being you Cole. Just for you being you.”


	41. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, Valentine's Day was kind of inspiring.

Valentine’s day far away from her kind of sucked.

Well, not just kind of, it actually sucked.

If someone had told him five years ago, that he would be this sentimental about fucking Valentine’s day, he would have probably doubled over with laughter. But that was before she came along. With those bright green eyes, that laugh that made his heart grow three sizes every time he heard it and a kind of comfort that had been unknown to him until then. Before she turned his whole world upside down.

And him into a sap, apparently.

But that was the best of it. He really didn’t mind being a sap. Not when it was about her. He’d gladly fulfill the cheesiest clichés if it only made her smile. Like the roses and the chocolate last weekend. It took so little to make her happy, to see her eyes lighten up. He’d be a fool not to try, no matter the day, the hour or the place.

The caption probably also made her smile. Or at least he hopes it does. She hasn’t reacted to it yet, but its only 9 a. m. and she has a late start today, so he is pretty sure she is still sleeping. He wishes he could too. But his body had just naturally woken up at 7 a.m. and there had been no way of getting back to sleep.

So here he is, on his second cup of coffee, scrolling through the pictures of her in the snow. There are many of them, although they hadn’t spent too much time in the woods. It had been freezing cold and the fireplace back at their hotel room had been a way more taunting option, then the ridiculously cold temperatures outside.

He can’t help but smile at most of the pictures. Just like making her happy, photographing her is easy. One look is usually enough. One look and she positions herself exactly like he’d imagined it, like she is able to read his thoughts, see the picture that has formed in his mind. He suspects that she probably can, but just doesn’t admit it.

He scrolls for another while, edits something here and there, until his phone dings and he looks up, hand reaching out to check if it’s her.

Of course, it is, and he smiles at the all caps message. He can almost imagine her face, her laughter. It makes him feel warm all over, to know that he can cause that.

He answers her, with a message that is equally as excited and then quietly chuckles to himself when he realizes that this is another thing, he’d never thought he would do.

They text until she has to go and grab a shower before heading out for work. It makes him sigh. If it had been for him, he would have spent the whole day texting and FaceTiming her, but unfortunately the world doesn’t work that way. Not in their line of work at least. Not that he isn’t thankful for what he has, thankful for the fact that apparently, a lot of people take interest in the movie Justin, Haley, Moises, the whole crew and he put so much time, sweat and heart into. The world is just always a little greyer when she isn’t around.

His phone screen lights up again, but this time its not a message, but an Instagram notification (because yes, he has notifications turned on for his girlfriend’s Instagram account, sue him). He taps the screen and nearly gulps at the picture that comes up.

It’s from San Francisco, the trip to the haunted hotel and he remembers the moment vividly. They’d gotten onto the roof of the building, where technically they weren’t allowed to be, but they’d had broken that rule numerous times when he had been photographing her the day before. It was their last night in San Francisco and the next day they were going to return to Vancouver. Back to work, the day to day, a more or less normal life.

The sun had been slowly setting in the background and he’d felt so god darn comfortable, that he still wishes he could have stopped time right then and there and live in that moment for a while.

But up until now, he still lacks super human powers like that, so revisiting that moment, is only possible through pictures. Pictures like the one she had posted.

He remembers pulling her close, looking down at her, seeing that smile, knowing that it probably mirrored his. He had only partly realized that she’d taken a picture, while they’d kissed and then watched the sun slowly sink beneath the horizon. She’d only shown it to him the next morning, while they were lazing in bed and really cutting it close with time, because none of them wanted to actually leave.

He’d marveled at it for a moment, a little bit surprised how much he didn’t just like the picture itself, but also the look on his face. He looks so content, so at peace with the world around him, it had startled him at first. But after a few seconds he realizes, that of course, of course he has that look on his face. He’s with her. And that makes all the difference.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: ccshbh


End file.
